Kimmel Is Back, But It’s Not Over (Hour 2)

From the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd

Alba.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Ta-da-ba along with Mr. Aaron Zommerns on the board.

It is now six minutes past the hour of two o'clock on this Thursday.

September 25th, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

at the World Headquarters, Downtown Madison, intersection of state and fairchild.

It is great to be with you.

A sunny sky, perfect autumn fall day, Mr. Zommeres went up to Wonderstake, a little coffee here before the show.

Blue skies, temperatures, the mid-70s, no humidity.

It's one of those, it's my favorite time of year in Wisconsin.

Yeah, I'm here for it.

The no-humidity is key.

Right.

Yeah, absolutely.

Get out there and enjoy it, folks.

Meteorologist Britt Emerlowe says, nice weather can last into next week.

So get out there.

Grab ahold of it.

Because come February, you'll be saying, why didn't I get out and enjoy the nice weather back in September?

So it should be a great

afternoon, great couple of days, so enjoy the weather.

I'm gonna talk later on in this hour to Pacific Media's political editor and founder of the recombobulation area, Dan Schaefer.

But a discombobulating week in state political news, new gubernatorial candidate on the Republican side.

Some people call him, I think I'm gonna start using that in those numbers.

Trump says, you know, some people are saying, many people are saying, they call him, they call him toxic Tom Tiffany.

Many

people are saying many

people are saying

thank you for your attention to this matter

Dan Schaeffer will help us recombine play and we'll talk about the bucks a little bit and the Brewers because nobody is more Milwaukee on this show than The Dan Schaeffer well, maybe our next guest is

as Milwaukee.

And then in hour number two of allergy season is upon the somers.

Don't we know it fall allergies or spring allergies?

What's worse?

And at 335 Keegan Kelly, writer for cracked.com national publication back on the show, talking about the return of Jimmy Kimmel on ABC this week, what it means for not just late night television and broadcast news, but free speech in this country.

Keegan Kelly at 335 also our two another edition of civic medias green and gold text to win multi-state contest your chance to win cash and prizes but right now no bigger why do you cash and prizes when you have our next guest live from Milwaukee he is a two-time chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin a navy veteran an attorney and author our friend Matt Flynn joins us from Milwaukee Matt how are you

Good to be with you, Todd.

Looking forward to the Todd Olbo Show this hour.

It's always great.

Is it nice down in Milwaukee today as well?

Beautiful.

Beautiful blue sky mid-70s.

And it's not going to last.

That's the problem.

It falls

on the

shortest season, right?

I have friends that have a nice sailboat down in Lake Michigan, and I went down to football four and a half hours.

It was raining, so we just had to stay in the marina there on Lake Michigan.

But my gosh, I mean, the shores of Lake Michigan by Milwaukee this time of year.

Beautiful.

Yeah.

No, no, it definitely is.

And the AT Club and the marinas are going to still sending boats out for another month or so.

Yeah.

The people have very, very strong stomachs.

Right.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, let's get into the top story of the day, Matt.

I appreciate you coming on on short notice.

As some of the listeners of this program know, I spent a number of years working on military affairs for former US Congressman Scott Kluge.

I did not.

serve.

I did not wear the uniform, as they say.

Matt is a Navy veteran.

And so I wanted you to take your insight on this.

Let's start with the story that I believe is broken by the Washington Post.

Today, headline, Hagseth orders rare urgent meeting of hundreds of generals and admirals.

Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth has ordered hundreds of U.S.

military generals and admirals together on short notice and without a stated reason.

at a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week, sowing confusion and alarm after the Trump administration's firing of numerous senior leaders this year.

A highly unusual directive was sent to virtually all of the military's top commanders worldwide, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the matter.

It was issued earlier this week against the backdrop of a potential government shutdown.

and as Hague Seth overtly political moves have deepened a sense of distress amongst his opponents who fear he is erasing the Defense Department status as a nonpartisan institution.

In a statement today, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell affirmed that Hague Seth, quote, will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week, unquote, but he offered no additional details.

It was not immediately clear whether the White House is involved with the meeting or if President Trump also intends to be there.

Now, apparently, skipping down the story a little bit by the Washington Post, what they're reporting is around 800 generals, flag officers of the U.S.

military from all over the world are going to be brought to just outside of D.C.

at Aquantico, Virginia for this meeting.

I want to bring you in now because you can feel and you've seen the article as well.

Give us just, I think this is important.

People who haven't worn the uniform don't understand the purpose for chain of command.

They don't always understand the purpose of why the military works as it does as a veteran.

As somebody knows military history, explain your first reaction to this story by the Washington Post.

Yeah, I think it's disgusting and let me tell you what is really happening.

The military has always been non-partisan ever since George Washington.

Something like this has never happened.

It didn't happen.

Abraham Lincoln didn't do it.

Dwight Eisenhower in the Second World War didn't do it.

And all of the service academies who prepare officers, drilling into everybody's head, were non-partisan, were non-political.

Donald Trump is a malignant tumor.

And this is coming from Trump.

And when Trump speaks, Vladimir Putin is the ventriloquist.

By bringing these people in like this, they are showing dominance.

They're showing you have to be loyal to Trump.

Trump has already, Trump already now interviews personally every flag officer to make sure they're loyal to him.

This is contrary to American tradition.

The second thing is what's going on.

is that with the government shutdown, Trump is now threatening to lay off a lot of people.

What he may try to do, and this will also please Putin, Trump has betrayed us to the Russians, by the way.

What he's going to do is he will lay off, fire some flag officers.

And if he doesn't think they're loyal to him, to try to inflict pain.

Everybody listening to this show must understand something.

Donald Trump is an enemy of the United States.

He's serving Russian interests.

And by doing this, by trying to demoralize the chain of command, make believe you're an admiral or a general.

You have a wife and kids.

You have, this is your career.

You don't make a lot of money, but there's a lot of prestige in it.

And you have a choice.

You knuckle under to this guy, or you lose your entire career.

That's what's going on.

And to me, as we fair our statewide listening audience, I know Matt very well.

I'm gonna say that we spent a lot of time together on and off the air read his books by the way We'll talk about that later.

I know where this is coming from But to be fair Matt, I think there might people say well geez Flynn that's some pretty strong language there but To back you up there as reporting new reporting as recently as this morning that even Republicans in Washington DC even on Fox News last night this morning

Fox News is calling Trump's relationship with Putin, quote, weird, unquote, and peculiar, unquote.

I think even people in his own party are saying, what's up with this guy?

I want to read one more thing here than back to Matt Flynn after this.

The Washington Post says, top commanders in conflict zones and senior military leaders stationed throughout Europe, the Middle East,

Asia-Pacific region are among those expected to attend Hexas meetings of people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition and anonymity because they weren't supposed to talk about it.

The order does not apply to top military officers who hold staff positions.

Unquote.

That's from the Washington Post story in this exclusive today.

Matt Flynn, again, talk about the danger to the rank and file.

When you're pulling out people, the

the CEOs, the commanding officers from some of the most dangerous and volatile military station places around the world.

When you take all those people out and put them in one spot, that's, that's I believe unprecedented and not what military teachings of the academies would tell you, right?

Right.

And it's potentially dangerous, but let me tell you the two layers of danger.

One might be that they have all these guys together and somebody drones them or.

Yemen and some of these places when the top guy leaves they they take the chance of attack I am less concerned about that even though it's very real because every flag officer has a deputy or a chief of staff who really is very good what's much worse is that the What message this sends to the rank and file to sergeants to enlisted men to junior officers?

I served I was lieutenant chagy and if my admiral

was summoned and then came back and it's sort of like he'd gone through a North Korean experience and suddenly loved Trump and all this.

That sends a terribly demoralizing message to the rank and file.

This is being done to show dominance.

Trump himself is a draft dodger, bone spurs.

He was too yellow to serve himself.

So you have the yellow bone spurs calling all of our flag officers into demoralize the military.

Is there any Republican out there who thinks this is a good idea?

If you do, you're more for Putin than you are

for America.

Back to the Washington Post story.

It says, uh, none of the people who spoke with the Washington Post could recall a defense secretary ever ordering so many of the military's generals and admirals to assemble like this.

Several Senate raised a security concerns to Matt's point that, quote, people are very concerned.

They have no idea what it means.

Unquote, one person said.

Others expressed frustration that even many commanders stationed overseas will be required to attend Hexess impromptu, uh, uh, summit on quote.

Uh, let's go into a couple of minutes before the break map.

We'll come back after this, but you touched on this earlier that.

This is on the heels of several people either being forced to retire or outright firing and there is a disproportionate and the Washington Post story points this out disproportionate number of women in particular in command positions who have been forced out and it would seem to me Matt as the military who has former Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell himself a black American said that the military historically has been a place of equalization

for Americans.

And now this appears to be a step back.

People are forgetting three things, Todd.

I agree with you.

One is he called people suckers and losers.

He did.

Trump, yes.

People who had given their lives.

He called them suckers and losers.

Number two, through Tommy Tuberville, he stopped all flag promotions for 10 months and demoralized the military.

Everything he does benefits Putin.

And number three, to your point,

To my knowledge, virtually every senior flag officer who is female or black, like the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CNO, he simply fired them.

He fired them.

Said it was woke to put a black man or a woman in charge.

Are you kidding me?

And this is what's going on.

And the Republican Party has knuckled under Trump.

They're knuckling under Vladimir Putin.

Washington Post says the firings were the latest in a wider purge of national security agencies' top ranks.

Since entering office, the Trump administration has also fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Q. Brown Jr., the Chief Naval Operations Officer, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, and the Air Force Vice Chief of Staff.

Amongst others, the list includes a disproportionate number of women.

according to the Washington Post.

We'll come back, talk with Matt, a little bit more about this.

Also, in an underreported story, the government is set to shut down next week.

Who is at fault?

And what's Matt Flynn gonna do in October?

He'll give us his calendar update as well.

Don't go anywhere, it's Todd, it's Matt at Zombers, across Wisconsin on the Civic Media.

Ready to work.

I hear the train are coming It's rolling around the bend And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when I'm stuck in full some prison And time keeps dragging on But that train keeps rolling on down to Santa

Welcome

back to Todd and Matt Direct at 23 past the hour of two o'clock.

Wherever you hear that music, Johnny Cash, you know, our friend Matt Flynn can't be far behind it.

That is the case today.

Two-time chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

U.S.

Navy veteran attorney and author Matt Flynn joins us from his, from his library in beautiful Milwaukee.

No, well, I mean, they named a library after him, but he has a very nice library there in his home.

How many, we'll get to this in a minute, Matt, but how many of the books behind you have you actually written?

Well, I've written six books and we're gonna have a Reading and a launch of my newest one at Boswell Books in Milwaukee on October 14 at 6 30 p.m.

So anybody listening, please come by Boswell Books

October 14th 6 30 p.m.

We'll repeat that one more time before we leave and does armor is gonna put it in the show notes as well talk with Matt Flynn and he comes he's a Renaissance man you understand Matt Flynn he can come on this show and talk about a number of things but we in particular I think it's important Matt on this story in the Washington Post today that Secretary of Defense and I'm still calling it Secretary of Defense.

I'm not gonna call Department of War Hankseth is ordering a rare

I think the term unprecedented is in line here.

As Gilligan would say on Gilligan's Island, not only that has never happened before, but Hague South is bringing all these generals and flying officers to Quantico, Virginia, even ones who are stationed overseas, and they're not telling anyone, according to the Washington Post, including those in the military, why they're coming.

And we're on verge of a government shutdown.

Matt, before we get to the government shutdown, give us a minute or so just as a veteran on the importance of doing things in a system and how that serves you, if and when God forbid the military is called upon to take defensive action.

The chain of command is the core

I would say the core culture of the military.

To give you an example, you take the Marine Corps, you take the Army guys that landed it on D-Day, they're told go on that beach.

They don't want to go on that beach, it's dangerous as hell, but they're told it by their lieutenants and captains, because their lieutenants and captains are going with them, and the flag officer that orders it knows a lot of them will be killed, but we need it to take the island.

In the Navy, you're told during the Battle of Midway, the Battle of Leytea Gulf, I had a friend whose father was a gunnery officer in Leytea Gulf.

All right, destroyer or cruiser, go that direction, take on that Japanese aircraft carrier.

They may get blown out of the water, many of them did.

They do it because they obey the chain of command.

When you have a guy like Trump who's a draft dodger, flat out, said he had bone spurs,

is called the military suckers, losers, and for 10 months, barred the promotions of flag officers.

You have somebody who is trying to demoralize the flag officers who are the top.

They're the generals and the admirals, and that seeps down.

So if you're a sergeant, you're a seaman apprentice, you're a lieutenant JJ, what's going on?

It demoralizes, and the only purpose of this, there's no military purpose.

The only purpose of this is to show dominance by Trump over them and to weed out people who he thinks aren't loyal to him.

And with the government shutdown coming up, it's an important part of it.

He's going to fire some of them to teach him a lesson and teach America a lesson.

One more question, Matt Flynn.

When we look at what's happening in here domestically.

And Donald Trump deployed National Guard members in Washington, D.C.

Both active duty and National Guard members in Los Angeles threatened to do so in Chicago, although the mayor and the governor there stood up to him when he backed down.

He claimed he was going to go into Memphis next.

With seemingly, I'll call it, and you tell me if I'm overstating it, the militarization of the US government in some of these domestic cities for, I believe, political reasons.

Now we have a situation where we don't have an adjutant or a Joint Chiefs of Staff like General Milley who just said, I'm not doing this.

Now we're putting, yes, and I'm going to say men because they're all men, yes men in these positions.

Aren't we reaching a very dangerous time?

I don't want to get people afraid, but I think our antennae should be up on this map.

You're absolutely right.

What we're doing is he is single-handedly trying to break the nonpartisan tradition of our military.

And he's trying to look like a tough guy.

He shoots a couple of speedboats with drugs in the Caribbean, that kind of thing.

But he's not doing anything to help Poland, Romania, and Estonia, who are being threatened by Russia.

Nothing to help Ukraine.

What he is is he's deliberately insulting our allies, Canada, humiliating them, NATO, and at the same time trying to look like a tough guy.

Well, it's not just the draft dodger thing.

It's not that he's a draft dodger because he had deep-seated convictions against war.

What he was was he was chicken to go.

That's what it was.

And now this clown is bringing in all of our people to try to demoralize them and to change the nonpartisan nature of the military.

pretend to look tough on military matters when he's betraying NATO and betraying Ukraine, betraying our allies.

Time always goes too quickly, Matt Flynn, and we'll talk with Dan Schaefer next about this government shutdown, but I wanted, we have about a minute left, I want to ask you, you have a new book out, you're gonna be at a book signing at Boswell Books in Milwaukee, October 14th at 6.30, Zomers has the details there.

One question, Republican gubernatorial candidate of Wisconsin, Bill Barion, was he the basis for any of the characters in your new book?

I will say that given the proclivities of Mary, and Epstein, and Trump, and Hegseth, and the list as long as you're armed, the core message of this book, American Dawn, is hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

The Republicans that do this to this woman pay the ultimate price.

You will like this book a lot.

American Dawn,

October 14, Boswell Books in Milwaukee and Downer Avenue, 6.30 p.m.

Books on it.

Bill Berrien, bringing back Bill Clinton's triangulation in more ways than one, but Matt Flynn always giving us great information.

Matt, I always appreciate you.

Have a great day, my friends.

Stay tuned.

Dan Schaefer is next to recapobulate across Wisconsin.

Bye-bye.

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man.

Milwaukee's best.

It's a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.

What about Milwaukee, man?

It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.

I think God would want us to go to Milwaukee.

And it lies between the pit of a man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.

What do you think about Milwaukee?

This is the dimension of imagination.

You are now entering the Reconpopulation Area.

I mean, we need a Reconpopulation Area.

We all need a Reconpopulation Area.

35 minutes now past the hour of 2 o'clock.

Welcome back to the Tunnel Ball Show across the Civic Media Radio Network, Aaron Zombers, on the board.

And with that introduction...

It can only mean that one person is on the other side.

He is the political editor for Civic Media and the founder of the Recobobulation Area.

You can find all of his work, include that of all the folks at the Recobobulation Area at therecobobulationarea.news.

Therecobobulationarea.news.

Dan Schaefer, live from Milwaukee, Cream City, USA.

How are you?

I'm doing well Todd.

Always wonderful to join you here on the Todd Alba show and you're right.

There can be no one else who that introduction could possibly apply to other than yours truly here at the Reconvibulation Area.

Always fun to hear that one.

It is.

It is.

It's a great intro.

We appreciate you taking the time.

You're a busy guy, Dan.

I don't know where to begin.

We've got new people jumping into the gubernatorial race on both sides of the aisle.

One of the guys is looking up throuples and attacking people's sex lives at the same time.

We've got a government that's on the verge of shutdown in Washington, DC.

I wish there was a term for how I felt right now.

Are you feeling a little discombobulated here, Mr. Alba?

Could that possibly be it?

Is that how you're feeling

today?

You nailed it.

I am feeling very discombobulated.

Well, it's a good thing I'm here to help piece things back together, you know, help you get your bag together, you head to your gate, get your shoes back on, all of those things that we need to do at the recombobulation area.

It's great to have you here, because there is so much going on.

Where should we start with the gubernatorial race, Dan, because I know you've been working on a new piece at the recombobulationarea.news on that.

Sure, let's start there.

Yeah, wrote a piece published today about Tom Tiffany throwing his hat into the ring for the race for governor.

He, you know, it seems like he has kind of sort of been campaigning for the past few months, but he made it official with an announcement on the Dan O'Donnell show Tuesday afternoon.

I had an event in Wausau yesterday.

We had some coverage there at Civic Media from our news team as well.

But, you know, just really taking a look at

Tom Tiffany and his candidacy and I think he is very likely to be the Republican nominee for governor in Wisconsin for the 2026 election and I think part of that is because you know he's a he's a thrice elected congressman been raising his profile in the media over the past in recent years and months and whatever but I also think it's a

kind of a lackluster field.

And so I think Tom Tiffany comes into this race.

I think he is perhaps a Trump endorsement and a strong fundraising quarter away from clearing the field for the Republican primary.

But I also think when you look ahead to his prospects for the general election, I think it gets a little bit complicated for him, gets a little bit tricky.

But I do think Tiffany's announcement is the most significant one that we have seen on the Republican side of this first open

race for governor since 2010.

Tom

Tiffany, former state senator here, and, you know, did a lot of, in my opinion, bad things legislatively to change environmental laws to allow mining in northern Wisconsin as part of former Republican governor Scott Walker's, again, my words, sham piece of land.

He claimed he was going to create thousands of jobs, mining jobs in northern Wisconsin.

And to my knowledge, there have been

Zero but the laws did get changed the environmental laws and Tom Tiffany was a large part of changing those in his state Senate district at the time and That's why he gets this name toxic Tom Tiffany, which I think is is deserved But to your point, I think it's also fair as a former Republican myself.

I think you're right because of

You know, we've already seen, I believe, Tony Weed, Congressman Tony Weed of the Eighth Congressional District has endorsed him today.

My

sense is

it's going to be, you know, not an avalanche, but a drip of next will be Fitz and then Grossman or whoever.

I think he's got the, if there is an establishment Republican party anymore, he probably has that.

But also to your point, I don't think he plays well statewide in general, but do you think that

Trump's just gonna hold on.

I mean, I think Trump looks at this like the apprentice, the old TV show.

And I'm not sure that he doesn't want to see a little chaos in Wisconsin and have him fight it out a little bit.

I don't think he wants to just crown somebody right away.

What do you think?

Well, what do you think he wants a little bit of a reality TV drama to unfold here in the primary?

Yeah, you could be right about that But you know and I guess there's a little bit of a kind of version of that happening with Bill Barion and the news about him this week

You mentioned thrice elect and speaking of throuples and here's the deal.

Here's the deal.

I

As long as people are of age and it's consensual, whenever people want to do consensually in their own bedrooms, hey, have at it, have fun, who am I to judge?

But it's the fact that Bill Barion has made it part of his campaign to attack marginalized people, particularly on sexual spectrums, and also, you know,

Taking morality from his faith and put it into power that he's basically being a hypocrite because Dan Bison the state or the journal Sentinel did some research and kind of exposed mr. Barion for being a hypocrite

Yeah, all those issues aside and that's perhaps a separate conversation that we could have some time I don't think it helps him in a Republican primary Don't think it helps him politically by any stretch of the imagination And I you know I have seen some people say that you know that he should drop out or his campaign is over or whatever it might be and again What somebody does in their own personal business is none of our business But I think you know when you're looking at it from a political standpoint.

It's not something that's going to help him

And I don't think his campaign was really going anywhere before that story was happening either

a lot of money

He is he spent a lot of money, but I think

you know, compared to some of the other campaigns we saw, we've seen it from self funders on the Republican side in Wisconsin, be it Tim Michaels running for governor a few years ago, Eric Havde running for Senate last year.

I think, you know, Barian's announcement landed flat compared to either of them, even to begin with.

And now he's got this whole other set of

Issues that he's dealing with as well.

So I don't think he has a great chance of winning in this primary I also think don't think Josh showman's campaign Washington County executive like he's a young guy.

He's energetic.

He's working hard.

He's gonna travel in all of the state I think it's significant that he hasn't picked up any significant major endorsements since May since he launched his campaign So he may be you know continuing on this path in the primary, but if Donald Trump endorses

Tom Tiffany, which he could do, we don't know.

And Tiffany has a strong fundraising quarter because I think that is one of the knocks on Tiffany is that he has not been a

particularly prolific fundraiser.

He's in a deep red district.

He doesn't have to fundraise the way that some people in more competitive districts might have to, but he still hasn't done very well.

His name came up as a possible candidate for Senate a couple of years ago, and then he had a really bad fundraising quarter, and it was like, well, that's the end of that.

He's not going to be in the mix there.

You know remains to be seen how this goes, but I do think Tiffany walks into this as the clear leader in the primary of the three candidates who have announced so far three major candidates who have announced so far and I think he is by far the most likely candidate to secure the Republican nomination for governor

and just to put a fine tip on it poor choice of words on on Bill Barion I think you're right

Whatever people do their personal lives normally it wouldn't be news so people are wise Todd bring this up He's just doing it to to be goofy or whatever No, the reason I believe that it is news and should be talked about is because Barion made it news by coming out forcefully against the very issues that by the way he does not deny Bice's reporting on this and he simply say well, they're trying to come after me

So he clearly he clearly was looking at at these are part of the social media platform that is into different sexual exploits or whatever you want to call it.

But it's the fact that he is a hypocrite on it.

And that is why it's new, is my

opinion.

I agree.

Yeah, that is.

I mean, it's, you know, he's staked out a pretty anti trans rights.

Gay rights,

whatever.

Yeah, anti-LGBT writes however you want to characterize it in his platform in his announcement video And you know the fact that he is yeah

And also I think you know

some of the some of the chatter that I've heard too It just just shows that he's kind of not ready for prime time as if he's got this kind of stuff out

there

That he's not taking care of his online footprint, you know, that's

your point.

Let's say that Tiffany makes it through

And by the way, we have some audio from Tom Tiffany's announcement.

He had a breakfast up on the farm.

Zommerins, this is from the announcement.

Here we go.

That was not from Tom Tiffany's announcement.

I thought it was.

Oh, sorry.

I guess I need

to do a better job at

fact-checking.

See, that's why Schaefer thinks he has a reputation.

You understand?

He has a reputation.

He doesn't need this dog-and-pony show.

Oh, you got us all there, Chad.

You got us.

I always set that up a little bit beforehand.

But let's say that Tiffany makes it through the Republican primary.

I think that's a fair thing to say.

Yeah.

Let's talk, I mean, already.

And we brought this up with Trigvielson and Pat Crite-Low yesterday.

If you look at people, whether it's Jim Doyle on the Democratic side or Tommy Thompson on the Republican side, other people as well, historically, when you run for a statewide office, in particular, governor, you want to think forward.

Hey, I want to be your governor because this is what we can do together.

And it seems like to me, in Tom Tiffany's announcement, he's immediately saying how horrible Wisconsin is, how horrible everything is, and picks some very

In my opinion, hateful things to pick out specific, very small minority people in our state to pick on in order to get this nomination.

And I don't think that plays well.

I think you're, but it's, it's, but what we've kind of come to expect from the MAGA Republicans, and I think part of it is just playing to the base, uh, as well.

And, and I, you know,

I think that's the type of candidate that I think we should expect Tiffany to be.

I don't think he is going to be the type of candidate that is going to be the moderate that has all kinds of crossover appeal in the state.

I think he is going to be a candidate that the goal is to turn out the base.

And I think the goal is to, you know, kind of run up margins in some of the reddest counties in the state.

And I think it also is, you know, kind of exemplifies an interesting shift that we're seeing for the Republican Party in Wisconsin too.

Because forever, the stronghold was the wow counties.

The Republican stronghold was

Waukesha, Ozaki, and Washington counties, the three, you know.

historically deep red counties surrounding Milwaukee.

Well, those counties have continued to purple election after election.

You know, Tim Michaels was the first candidate to get under 60% in Waukesha County in forever, first Republican to get under 60 in forever.

So I think it is exemplifies the type of shift that we're seeing in the Republican Party as the base there being some of the more rural ex-urban western Wisconsin, northern Wisconsin areas that Tiffany is, you know, I think the goal would be to

to run up bigger numbers in some of those rural areas and try to maintain in the suburbs.

But I think Tiffany's going to really have some trouble in the Milwaukee area suburbs in particular.

He does not have a strong name recognition around here.

And I think the trends there are undeniable.

And I think they could accelerate with a candidate who is not really well known, doesn't have strong ties to the region.

That is the

Republican side of the Governor's race.

More Democrats getting in as well.

What's it going to take to win the Democratic primary without being seen as too far left in the general?

We'll ask Dan Schaefer after this.

Take your phone calls.

And Yanis, our signs that he really is going to stay in Wisconsin.

Dan Schaefer has the inside track on that.

We'll ask him after this on the All Ball Show.

show on the Civic Media already that work eight minutes now before the hour three o'clock.

Give me up an hour two.

A little what's worse for you.

Fall allergies or spring allergies.

We'll discuss.

Keegan Kelly is here from Crack.com on the return of Jimmy Kimmel to ABC and what it means for late night and free speech and your chance to participate in Civic Media's green and gold.

text-to-win contest.

But you're already a winner if you're listening into today's show because you're here on the day with our own Dan Schaefer, Civic Media political editor and founder of the Reconbibulation area is here to help us Reconbibulate.

Dan, always a pleasure to have you here.

And Zabras reminds me that, I think we alone, it's by Tiffany.

That's the only reason I played it.

There we go.

We're talking about getting some

mileage out of that over the

next year.

I'm

guessing

some

Tiffany puns.

Let's go quickly to the phone lines.

Troy in Mount Horrib, Troy.

Do you have a comment or question quick for Dan?

Yeah, real quick.

You were getting to the Democrats.

How worried should we be in 2016?

Trump basically.

partially at least got the nomination because there were so many candidates in the field that they split each other's votes and all of a sudden this lunatic Trump wins the nomination.

How worried do we have to be that the four or five if call gets in quote unquote normal candidates split their vote and these two other lunatics

Halsey and the beer guy, one of them get in.

That's a great question, Troy.

I appreciate it.

Dan Schaefer will talk Democratic candidates for Governor Wisconsin.

Well, I think a big primary, you know, it's so interesting because I think there's a lot of different perspectives that we got to get out.

And I don't think, you know, I don't think the.

the beer guy as an example has a great shot of coming through that primary.

But I think there's, of course, going to be some concern that somebody who would win with not a majority of the votes might not be as representative.

But I think Wisconsin Democrats are also taking some steps to ensure that they have a

more clear passing of the torch.

They announced this initiative this week.

The Tony Evers is going to be involved with a post

primary next year.

So I think there's an acknowledgement there that there is going to be a competitive primary that's going to last through next August.

And they want to be in position to be able to, you know, kind of pick up that torch and get across the finish line from there.

We've had all the major Democratic candidates on this show for Governor thus far.

I'm very impressed.

And the latest one was Francesca Hong here from Madison.

And A was thankful she came on.

admire her convictions that she believes what she says.

She's authentic.

And also, I said, well, while she was on the interview, I said, look, I've been tough on you from time to time.

You're further left than on some things, not all, but some things.

And I said, also, the style, is that really going to play well if you're the nominee in the general?

I thought she had a great answer.

She was very kind and she.

to help me out, keep me honest on this, but to paraphrase, she basically said, look, the issues and she named off healthcare and other things.

She said, I don't think those are progressive or left or right.

I think they're Wisconsin issues and I think it plays well for all Wisconsinites.

I thought it was a great answer and she comported herself very well.

Yeah.

And I think, you know, in her announcement video from last week too, you know, she talked about issues like childcare and healthcare and paid leave.

Like a lot of issues that.

have not passed in Wisconsin, but if you look at the polling there, often ones that have

pretty significant majority support as well.

So I think, you know, her campaign is off to a pretty compelling start.

As is, you know, I think Kelda Roy's also last week announced her campaign.

You know, she's a regular here on on

the top of the show as

well.

So your listeners know her well, especially around Madison.

So I think we're going to have a really I'm looking forward to the conversations that this primary is going to bring out because I think the Democratic Party

nationally is in such disarray and I sometimes Wisconsin can lead the way when things are at a change moment and I think we are at a change moment and I think what Wisconsin voters ultimately decide is going to have ramifications that reverberate nationally

too.

You gave us your guess on the Republican side you think Tom Tiffany is going to be the nominee I won't ask you for a decisive prediction but if the election were held today who's

the Democratic nominee?

I really don't know.

Because I think so much is going to depend on if Josh Call announces, if Mandela Barnes announces, if they jump into the race, I think that could really change the dynamic.

But I think when I did my too early preview at the Reconpopulation area, which I published about a month ago, the big four, the top four potential challengers that I had there were Sara Rodriguez.

So I think any of those four could have a real chance and then I think Francesca Hong's the wild card and she's as I put in that column and I think she's embraced that moniker a little bit in her campaign as well.

So we'll see.

Yeah,

I mean, there's the straw poll at the State Dem Party convention this year.

I don't my gut tells me if the people that have announced.

Just out of those people, I think it's a really tight matchup between Lieutenant Governor Rodriguez and State Senator Kelder Royce.

I think they're the most well-known statewide right now for Democrats.

But like you say, not everybody is probably in.

We shall see.

About a minute or so left here a little over, Dan, your Milwaukee, our Milwaukee Bucks, but nobody loves the Bucks more than our own Dan Schaefer.

Yanis Anzacupo's brother has been re-signed for another year.

Is that a good sign that Yanis ain't gone anywhere?

I think so you signed finasses.

He's not gonna he's not gonna play with anybody else other than his brother, right?

So, you know, I'm glad they signed him.

He's the best 15th man in NBA history Helping keep his brother in Milwaukee Providing so much energy from the sidelines and enthusiasm for the team whenever he hits the court I love having finasses around.

I'm looking forward to the buck season.

We got less than a month away.

I know where we've got bucks basketball

crazy Have you got the postseason Brewer ticket stand?

I don't have the tickets yet.

I haven't decided what I want to do for that.

What a season.

I mean, the feeling living in Milwaukee, I mean, I'm getting goosebumps out here in Madison.

It has to be incredible living in Milwaukee right now.

It is incredible.

You know, I live on the side of town that's closer to the stadium, kind of on the west side of town.

And like a lot of the bars and places around here have those shuttle buses that go to and from American Family Field.

They are packed these days.

It's a busy place.

People are excited.

So a lot of

energy looking forward to a fun October.

Find all of Dan's work at theRecapobulationArea.News.

Dan Schaefer, thanks so much.

We'll see you in a couple of weeks.

Thanks, Todd.

Be well.

All right.

Take

care.

Dan Schaefer, everybody.

From the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across Wisconsin on the Civic Media radio network.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Taddle ball along Mr. Aaron Zommers on the board.

It is now six minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Welcome into hour number two of the big broadcast here on Thursday, September 25th, 2025.

It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.

Glad to have you along for our two downtown medicine the world headquarters of civic media the crossroads of state Oh, what happened to the old Sam Davidson Street came all right.

Just hold on Zommer's will play music and talk to you I'm gonna go over and fix.

Oh look the bicyclists nice shot of the bicyclists I'll be right back

ends it up working out in our favor with the the cameras tilted a little bit down But with the bicyclists crossing the street with the signal I may add it

made for a better view of that.

Anyway, Todd returns quickly, but now you can see the blue sky.

Look at that beautiful blue sky, overture center across.

Now, right next door tonight, at the Orpheum, I stayed late last night because, by the way, our friend, Pat Critello, of Civic Media This Morning, with Up North News' own Pat Critello, powered by Courier News Service.

That's something like that.

No, Pat Kratlow's in town and he's doing a show here today in one of the studios and he's going to do it tomorrow from six until nine.

Make sure you tune in.

And so I helped set up a little thing in the studio for him, a little light to whatnot.

And as I was leaving last night, there was a huge line from State Street around the block to Fairchild in front of our building.

And I thought,

Well, they're in line to get Crite Low's autograph.

Not this time.

No, no, it wasn't.

John Baptiste, former band leader for the late show with Stephen Colbert, Grammy Award-winning, excuse me, John Baptiste, is playing next door at the Orpheum Theater last night and tonight.

Huge crowds, sellout crowds.

And I thought, wouldn't it be nice if John Baptiste would

would just stop over here today and just maybe bring his portable keyboard and play us a tune.

And so now I'm proud to tell you a surprise for the show.

John Baptiste is not here.

I was going

to

say.

Wouldn't that be something if he was out there in the lobby and he just came in?

That would have.

It also would be interesting since you didn't tell me about it.

And so we'd have to set up all the tech for it on

the

spot.

That would have been something worth it.

Not a match.

The board goes back.

Anyway, who do we have?

We do have Keegan Kelly here.

And what's nothing wrong with that?

Keegan Kelly will be here at the bottom of the hour, writerforcracked.com.

He's going to be talking about speaking a late night.

Jimmy Kimmel is back on the air on ABC.

We talked about that a little bit yesterday and.

Keegan Kelly, an entertainment writer, national writer, is going to be here talking about the implications of late night moving forward and also on free speech.

So Keegan Kelly will be here as well.

Also going to do what's worse.

Allergy season is upon us.

We'll talk about that and some text to win things as well in just a moment.

But first of all, a couple of pieces of business here.

The Brewers.

As you heard Mike Clemens talk about back in action tomorrow night have the day off Wouldn't it would it be great to be walking along the lake and run into Sal Freelick in Milwaukee today

and John Batiste and Sal

Freelick having a show

together

now that I could die if that happened I was I was I was talking to a friend of mine my friend Robin and Ian's wife and daughter went to a game with me this year

Big, big, and that that's one of the cool things in my opinion about the Brewers is that Rob and I and my buddy Kurt and others were texting about the games during the games.

And I think if nothing else was still cool about this year's Brewers team is that so many of us have bought into their personal stories.

And that's what I love about it.

And South Relics on Instagram, I was going through some of his stuff last night, and he has things posted all the way back to high school.

I didn't know he played quarterback.

I didn't either.

For his high school football team, could have gotten scholarships.

He chose baseball late.

in his high school career and then went on to Boston College.

But if you look at his work ethic, and he was also really involved all the way back to high school with the Boys and Girls Club in terms of helping special needs kids and doing like a special needs prom.

And he's continued to be involved with that now that he's in the pros.

And I'm thinking this guy was in a high school like six years ago or so.

And now here he is.

in the big leagues or the biggest names in baseball in the top team of baseball.

And he just, he seems like from what and how much can we really tell about somebody based on their social media, but to the degree that we can, not just South Freely, but Joe Artees and Christie Yelich and, and, uh, uh, you know, go right, Durbin and all the, all the reds go right through the lineup.

This is the smallest market in baseball.

And they're they're gonna they're one game away from securing the best record in baseball and the number one seed and they're the friendship amongst them seems genuine and That's why even beyond what they're doing on the field, which is spectacular But it's

the people as as Pat Murphy, the manager has said, and we're going to have Brady Ewing here tomorrow, our friend and ongoing contributor in the 330 times slot.

And Brady is going to talk to us as a former NFL player that you will ask him at the professional level, how much does friendship and relationship play into success?

So I'm looking forward to

that.

Yeah, I think it helps at all levels of athletics of.

Musician ship of everything.

It's just when you have a true connection.

It can just hum it really can

Brewer's back in action tomorrow night at am fan field the final three games of the regular season against the Cincinnati Reds And this is gonna be no cakewalk because the Reds are right in the battle for the wild card spot And they're gonna need to win every game So it's gonna be a barn burner at am fan field you could hear the broadcast starting tomorrow night with the pregame show at 635

first pitch just after seven o'clock in Milwaukee.

You can hear it on RCE and Richland Center, ISS in Oshkosh, CQM in Park Falls and BZH in Hayward, Wisconsin.

Cannot wait for that.

All right, it is now 13 minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

Time once again for Civic Media's green and gold text-to-win multi-state contest.

Up for grabs today.

$200 cash and gold jewelry.

Everybody who enters is eligible for the one grand prize to club level indoor seats to Green Bay versus Minnesota Green Bay home game on November 23rd of this year, of course, at high noon.

Also throwing in a gas card to get you to the game as a value of $1,550.

Open up the Civic Media app.

If you don't have it, download it at your Apple or Android device.

Open it up first ten stations are the ones that we are on select one on the lower right-hand corner You'll see a little thing that says text an icon click on that and now we're going to give you the word to text Until you have until four o'clock today to text in the word twin the word is twin T W I n is a Nancy T as in Todd W I

And as Nancy, the word is twin.

You have until four o'clock this afternoon to text in, remember, it's a state multi-state contest.

Good luck, everybody.

There you go.

So play, play, play hard, play well, win it all.

All right.

What should we do?

I'm trying to think about wanting this Obama cut or whether we should go right into what's worse.

What's your vote?

I mean, I couldn't vote for Obama before because I was too young, so I think I'm going to take this opportunity to say I voted for Obama.

You know what?

That answer is award-winning.

All right.

I thought we needed a little context from the wacky and wild news of the day.

And for me, nobody could just say things, and it's like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Better than former President Barack Obama.

He's been doing a lot of speaking engagements lately.

And this is from a day or two ago for President Barack Obama on the violence against the truth.

So we have the spectacle of my successor in the Oval Office making broad claims around certain drugs and autism that have been continuously disproved.

And.

The degree to which that undermines public health, the degree to which that can do harm to women who are pregnant, the degree to which that creates anxiety for parents who do have children who are autistic, which, by the way,

itself is subject to a spectrum and a lot of what is being trumpeted as these massive increases actually have to do with a broadening of the criteria across that spectrum so that people can actually get services and help, not to, it's all of that.

is violence against the truth.

Barack Obama, former president of the United States, great context there.

Violence against the truth.

Never heard that phrase before.

And he's right.

And the truth does matter.

17 past the hour of three o'clock.

Time once again for what's worse.

Let's

go.

Time once again for what's worse.

No prize money involved, nothing to give away for this portion.

We're still doing the green and gold text to win contest.

Giving things away there.

But this is just your chance to have your voice heard.

And what's better than that?

To turn on the radio and say, hey, that's me.

All right.

Category today, timely, timely indeed, as Mike Lucas likes to say.

Beautiful weather out there right now, but you can feel the golden rod turning yellow.

The corn is Turing Brown.

My grandma used to sing that song.

What's worse, category today, fall allergies or spring allergies.

Fall allergies or spring allergies.

Give us a ring.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-2-2.

4-8-4-2.

I've said that a million times.

I still mess it up.

Yes.

Give us a ring.

We'd love to hear from you.

Fall allergies or spring allergies.

I will break out the, uh, the medication here and, and we'll blow our nose and we'll come back.

No, uh, because this is, uh, I'll, I'll reveal my answer after we do some business.

But do you, do you think it's possible you were in a pharmacy's arms for a while?

Is it possible that can change with a person?

Yes, allergies can change and develop or go away.

I know some people who never had seasonal allergies when they were kids and now they do, and some people for whom seasonal allergies have gotten better.

That stuff can change.

I'm not entirely sure how that works, but I know it is possible.

We're not trying to pawn you off as a physician, but you did work in a pharmacy and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

Indeed, indeed.

Holiday and Express Pharmacy.

Oh, really?

I wish I could follow those.

All right.

Come on back.

What's worse, fall allergies or spring allergies?

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

Yes, I got the number right.

And text the word twin right now to win those fabulous prizes back after this.

The falling leaves Drift by the window The autumn leaves Of red and gold I see your lips The summer kisses The sunburn hands

Welcome back to the title ball show on the civic media radio network.

It has to be the smooth, buttery voice of Nat King Cole.

It sure is.

Very good.

Name the song?

Autumn Leaves.

There you go.

Autumn Leaves, Nat King.

I can just, I can, I can listen to him all afternoon.

But sadly, you have to listen to me.

Now years ago Nat King Cole was brought back kind of sort of his daughter a Natalie Cole Did a compilation with her early father.

It was fantastic.

So We could somehow recreate AI see AI right should I what if AI could give me Nat King Cole's voice now there We'd have a winner it could

I think I could get it close, you know And I don't know AI voices

That's a complicated thing.

It can be used to great effect All right

category fall allergies or spring allergies for today's what's worse 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 Ted listening in Appleton getting her done on the tarmac Ted what say you fall allergies or spring allergies was worse

Spring

spring what particular reason

you you know that fall once If the frost hits you're done

good point

anyhow.

Yeah,

but I I gotta give you an update sir,

please

On my tongue.

Oh, yes.

Yes He purchased some

time

If if you weren't listen from a what's worse a few weeks ago or a few days ago When we were talking about different meat pride and and and Ted brought up tongue so you purchased tongue you you Marinated it and you said would you grilled it?

No, I I just ended up boiling it.

Oh

boiled it for about three and a half hours and It cut like bad

really

It was so tender.

Once you get the heart, the outer skin off, it was like, but it was really good.

I'm sure it was.

You

gotta try it, Todd.

You gotta try it, man.

Thank you, Ted, for offering me some of your tongue, but I think I'll pass.

I appreciate it keep thanks for all the work you do up there at the beautiful Appleton Airport and have a great day.

What's worse fall allergies or spring allergies 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 Troy and Mount horror blissing on WM DX Troy fall allergies or spring allergies What's worse?

Well including today my left ear keeps clogging up and

you and me both in

the spring so yeah

No fun at all, is it?

I can't hear my

alarm.

My wife keeps nudging me.

Because I get up at 4.30 in the morning and she doesn't.

Right?

Let me ask you this.

Have your allergies changed?

So for me, it seems like my fall allergies used to be worse.

And now these days, it seems like the spring ones are worse.

Have yours changed over years or

no?

I never even had them, though, like 10

years ago.

Really?

All

right.

Yeah

might have gotten worse older.

I got

yeah And they are getting steadily worse, but when I had COVID I wake up every morning stuffy and I'm stuffy for like two three hours Yeah, so when I had COVID I didn't know it because I thought that was normal because I had I'd been vaccinated so just like I was stuffy, but then You know afternoon.

I was still stuffy.

I'm like, oh, yeah, this is different

Right.

Thanks, Troy.

Appreciate you.

Have a great day out there.

Beautiful Mount Horem.

Fall allergies or spring allergies?

What's worse?

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Matt in Middleton, listening on WMDX on the text line, says spring is worse as I want to be out doing things where as in the winter allergies, don't bother me as I'm usually inside with a hot beverage.

All right.

So I'm not sure if he added a new category.

If you just mistyped and meant the fallout, but I suppose dust mites and the like, right?

Zahra, you get winter allergies.

Real

dusty.

Yeah.

Right.

Now here's something I learned recently, by the way, I don't think I talked about this on the area.

Uh, cause I've always thought I had a kind of a depending, depending upon the cat, uh, a cat allergy.

Now I learned from someone who has cats recently.

They said, well, if you only are affected by some cats, it's not the cat.

It has to do with how people, how they keep their house clean because of the, and their cat clean, I guess, because of the dust mites on the cat and in the carpet and whatnot.

So it's not necessarily the cat.

It's how clean the cat is kept.

You know, I never thought about

Maybe if I ask my friends to clean their kitties that maybe I won't have such problems in the house.

Do you keep a clean cat?

Maybe it's a question we

all need to have.

That sounds like a dating question.

Anyway, 8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

Ollie in the Northwoods.

Ollie, fall allergies or spring allergies.

What's worse?

Well, I think spring allergies are worse because once they start, they're generally running all through the summer and

and don't stop until the first frost and stuff in the fall.

So I'd definitely say bring one the worst.

All right, I appreciate it, Ollie.

I hope we have a great afternoon up there in the beautiful North Woods.

Off the text line, Dolores on WMDX Madison, weighing in on Ted's earlier category of know your cuts of meat.

Dolores says tongue tacos.

are delicious.

We're talking about

food.

I'm only going to read that and offering nothing more.

Linda in Middleton on WMDX says fall allergies are worse because of corn pollen.

Zomers quickly.

For me, spring allergies are worse.

It's just they always hit me harder.

They are for me now as well.

Used to be fall now and spring.

All right, come on back.

Keegan Kelly late night.

Jimmy Kimmel what it means first free speech.

We'll talk with him after this.

Tharm news is next on the Civic Medium.

Ready to work.

doing it.

Welcome back to the Toutal Ball Show on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Glad to have you along.

35 minutes now past the hour of three o'clock.

Aaron Zommers running it on the board doing a yeoman's work as always.

Quick update for you.

A right smack dab in the middle of our green and gold text to win contest.

Your chance to win $200 cash and gold jewelry and then everybody is entered in.

for a fabulous prize of an indoor seat to Green Bay versus Minnesota in November.

It's a prize package valued at $1,550, yours if the price is right.

Oh, and it's also a multi-state contest.

You can enter by texting the word TWIN, T-W-I-N.

Text the word TWIN right now on the Civic Media.

app.

There is no twin.

He is singular.

He comes to us from crack.com, a beautiful staff writer and entertainment reporter.

Keegan Kelly is back on the show live from his home via StreamYard.

Keegan, thanks for coming back.

How are you?

Thanks for having me better than I was last time.

I'll say

that much.

Some sense has returned to TV

some sense.

We're talking of course Keegan was kind enough to join us shortly after ABC and Disney Did the the suspension the indefinite suspension they called it of Jimmy Kimmel?

After his remarks following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, want to point out they were not comments directed at the deceased, but rather at Donald Trump's reaction to it.

But for that, he was taken off the air.

They came to an agreement.

Disney and Kimmel did.

And he was back on the air Keegan on Tuesday, albeit not on all of the stations.

Those which were owned by Nextar and Sinclair did not carry it.

I guess they covered carry more of the family feud celebrity, whatever.

But what was your reaction to the return of Jimmy Kimmelkegan?

I thought he really stuck the landing here, in my opinion.

I know that he's gotten some criticism from

Further left people who feel like he should have gone in harder on the Trump administration He should have had a little bit more fire a little bit more anger, but I don't think that was appropriate for the moment he had unprecedented attention and eyeballs on him and he I think that the smart move there wasn't to escalate any kind of war or Try to pull some punches of his own

But it was to paint this as what it really was.

It was a First Amendment issue.

And

that affects everyone.

That affects conservatives.

That affects liberals.

And he did a very good point of calling attention to his conservative, I don't want to say allies, but maybe temporary defenders.

He named dropped Ted Cruz at one point.

And he really said this is not a partisan issue.

This is the government trying to do something that it's not allowed to do.

And he took it very seriously.

He did have a few pretty good punchlines here and there.

I think my favorite joke in the night is when he said that Ted Cruz knows the freedom of speech is important because how else is he gonna cast

curses on the Smurfs.

That was pretty good.

I liked the line.

I'm not going to get it verbatim, but basically said, you know, Donald Trump said I was taking off the air because I don't have good ratings.

Well, tonight I do.

I thought that was pretty good.

To that point, we have a quick clip from CNN, who broke in last night on the cable news network to talk about the numbers being in on Nielsen on Kimmel.

All right, the breaking news, Jimmy Kimmel.

The ratings are in for the first day.

And by the way, this is just on the linear here.

We'll share 6.2 million, 6.26 actually, six and a quarter million viewers on ABC.

That was four times Jimmy Kimmel's average.

And that's despite the show not even being available at a quarter of all American homes.

And the reason for that, of course, is those local TV station owners next star in Sinclair.

They're refusing to air Kimmel's program.

So even without a quarter of households, they managed to do that incredible surge.

Last night's surge show was Kimmel's most watched show.

In fact, since March 12th, 2015, so you got to go back more than 10 years.

President Obama.

at the time was Jimmy Kimmel's guest that night.

That is CNN on the Nielsen numbers out for Jimmy Kimmel's first appearance back after being temporarily suspended on Tuesday.

Keegan, you watch these things more than anyone else.

Boy, if you want an earned media for your show, if you're Jimmy Kimmel, you got it.

Oh yeah, and that's not even counting the attention this got on social media and on streaming.

I'm looking at the number here.

his opening monologue from his first show back over 20 million views on YouTube in less than two days.

And that's astronomical.

Yeah.

I mean, that never happens in late night.

And that's important too, because as you said, these broadcasting groups, Next Star and Sinclair, they've preempted Kimmel and plan to continue to do so.

Who knows how long that'll go on, maybe forever.

But.

That's really not where the business is at this point is these local affiliates.

I believe they own 23% of ABC stations local ABC stations across the country But that's just not where late night is anymore.

That's not where TV is It's streaming its social media.

It's it's the attention that it gets kind of after its aired and man Does Kim will have it right

now

and it's it's even continued until last night.

He's still put up pretty impressive numbers

You know, I think a lot of people anticipated that there would be a deflation.

I guess people would lose interest once they saw he was back and late night kind of returned to normal.

But that hasn't happened both online and on TV.

You brought this up on on on other appearances.

And I think it's so such a great time to talk about this.

And you talked about in the context of part part of the reason perhaps that CBS.

Decided to cancel late night was they just weren't really living up to expectations on social media say the way that James Corden was when he was on late late the late late show on on on CBS to this point This according to late nighter comm today saying that prior to the suspension Jimmy Kimmel live had been growing on Instagram by about 2,000 followers daily

During the first 24 hours after ABC announced it was indefinitely pulling the show Jimmy Kimmel live picked up 130,000 followers the show is now closing in on five million up from four and a half million last week Again proving your point Keegan Kelly that this is all the I mean I Kimmel's contract is up right at the end of this year I mean could this be a whole new life for Kimmel potentially?

I think that it's certainly worth the week-long vacation that he got.

I mean, I think there's a real possibility here that there is this kind of resurgence that now that the president has kind of made late night a battleground for the First Amendment, there's going to be a lot of people tuning in just to keep it alive.

And I think that's very possible that this extends the show's lifespan.

I thought I think it was I'm kind of confused with my days is either Tuesday or last night.

I think it was last night When Colbert was talking about this a little bit and any and he said hey Disney reversed the decision and brought back Jimmy Kimmel Hey, Paramount any announcement you'd like to make No, no they haven't Kimmel or Colbert is still cancelled as of May

Yeah, I think he said he's back to being the only martyr in late

yes

Hopefully he stays the only one

right no absolutely Also, he talked about a little bit on last night show Jimmy Kimmel did he's coming to Brooklyn I believe next week and boy a huge lineup So again, if you look at what this episode has done

Money wise ratings wise and now we're hearing and I guess this is the question what to ask if you have any intelligence on this in terms of your reporting I saw something on some feed this one.

We have to be very very careful There are some reporting slash rumors out there that next star and Sinclair are now being told by Disney ABC because of what you just said about the resurgence that if they don't start showing Kimmel again that

ABC Disney might say, no Monday night football, Sinclair next star, and no ABC World News Tonight, the number one nightly news show with David Muir.

Is that accurate or

not?

I can't speak to the validity, but I can look at how next star and Sinclair have responded after Kimmel came back, because their initial comments were pretty harsh.

They very fiercely condemned him.

They, I would say,

kept in line with the White House's official stance on his comments and misrepresented them I felt and I think you feel the same as saying something he didn't as an excuse to take him off the air but afterwards the releases that they put out were along the lines of we are having very constructive talks we hope to reach a resolution we're gonna keep preempting him for now but we hope to find a conclusion to this soon it was much softer language not this

big ultimatum.

There were no more threats.

There were no demands that he donate to Turning Point USA as they previously told him to do.

So their stance is certainly softened and very quickly.

So I wouldn't be surprised if there is some behind the scenes pressure going on in between Disney and these groups.

We're talking with writer for Cracked.com, Keegan Kelly.

You can find all of his work and writing at Cracked.com talking about the

return of Jimmy Kimmel live to ABC and what it means to late night and and free speech in general talk to us a minute Keegan a couple minutes here before before the break What do you think is the impact beyond Kimmel?

Like we say CBS probably not bringing back Colbert, but what is going to be the impact on on late night and just television entertainment in general because of Kimmel and Disney apparently at least for now standing up for the Trump administration

I think it's bought us some time.

I think that the problems that existed in the industry previously, which you and I have talked about, just about economic viability and how the platforms have changed, those still exist.

But I think the censorship concerns at this point, I mean, I can't remember the last time a media company the size of Disney completely reversed course this quickly because of public blowback.

And I think that's a good sign that the precedent has been set that if you do take critics off the air, if you silence comedians because they don't agree with the White House, it's not something that their viewers are going to take lying down.

There's going to be subscribers boycotting.

There's going to be cancellations of subscriptions.

There's going to be the exact media firestorm that we saw for the last week.

I do think that this is a good sign for

the

safety.

And quickly, was there anything to have saw a $3 billion number thrown around any credibility to that number?

But clearly, to your point, Disney must have felt this in the pocketbook at some way to bring them back so quickly.

I don't think anyone has an exact number on the Disney pocketbook besides Disney.

I three billion feels like a lot.

Yeah.

But it was enough to.

bring them back to the table.

It was enough to bring Kimmel back.

And that's all that matters at the end of the day.

I can't, uh, I can't.

Talk the validity of the three billion dollar number.

I will tell you that earlier Today I was down and I saw Mickey and Minnie Mouse standing in line for government cheese So I mean there's that there's that I can't speak to anything else.

Are we I gotta do a little business here and we're gonna come back talk more with King Kelly at crack.com and Not just Kimmel but also South Park and and other programs have felt the heat of the Trump administration.

What does

this impact them and free speech for entertainment in general.

Don't forget to text the word twin, T-W-I-N to the Civic Media app to be in for the green and gold text to win contest.

Come on back, it's Keegan, Todd, Zombers, your phone calls as well across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Ready

Network.

back to the title of all show on the Civic Media already network where it is now eight minutes before the hour of four o'clock on the top of the hour.

ABC or CBS News, depending upon which of our great stations you're listening to, followed by a check of whether with a Brit name or low, it's beautiful.

That's the forecast.

And then we're going to have a sports report with a great sports reporter, Mike Clemens, bringing you up to speed.

The brew crew gets back day off today.

And they are one game, one win, or one Philadelphia Phillies loss away from securing the best record in baseball and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Clemens will be in with that.

And then stay tuned for a very special edition of the Maggie Dawn Show live on location out in my part of the woods.

Beautiful Spring Green, Wisconsin from Risinger Hilltop Farm in Spring Green.

Great show, focusing on Wisconsin agriculture.

Join Maggie and her guests from four until six and stick around then for Pete Schwabba and Nightlight.

All right, here joining us via StreamYard, Keegan Kelly, writer for Cracked.com, entertainment reporter on Jimmy Kimmel coming back.

Quickly, let's go to the phone lines.

Carmella in Milwaukee, listening on WAUK.

Carmella, quickly, I had a question on Kimmel.

Now a question more statement just that Tom from LA always says we the people this really showed How how much the people can fight back and make a difference?

I mean we're always talking about voting and do other things this hit them right in the pocketbook canceled subscriptions Outrage everything so yeah

I just wanted to say that.

I'm really proud of pretty much everybody who made this happen in this quickly.

Appreciate it, Carmela.

Thanks for listening down there, beautiful Milwaukee.

Also, Keegan, somebody just called in to say, Kimmel for president.

And then hung up, apparently.