Jimmy Kimmel welcomes his first live audience in 15 months: "We finally have a real audience"

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Due to COVID restrictions, the 89-person half-capacity fully vaccinated crowd who showed up for Monday's Jimmy Kimmel Live! was a fraction of Colbert's 400-strong return to the Ed Sullivan Theater last week. But Kimmel was enjoying having an audience to tell jokes to after months of having staffers laugh at his monologue. “We are not fully full yet," said Kimmel. "We were allowed to let 89 people in. How they arrived at that number, I have no idea. For those of you watching from home, if it sounds different it’s because after more than, what, 15 months, at home and in a mostly empty studio, we finally have a real audience. It’s almost like a real show for a change.”