Jimmy Kimmel was in the bathroom when he was told by ABC ex ecutives his show was being taken off air

Jimmy has now revealed details of the dreaded phone call he had with ABC bosses, during which he told them: "I don't think that's a good idea."

Speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he said: "It was about three o'clock, we tape our show at 4:30.

"I'm in my office, typing away as I usually do, I get a phone call. It's ABC. They say they want to talk to me.

"This is unusual. They - as far as I knew - didn't even know I was doing a show previous to this.

"I have like five people who work in my office with me. So the only private place to go is the bathroom.

"So I go into the bathroom, and I'm on the phone with the ABC ex ecutives, and they say, 'Listen, we want to take the temperature down. We're concerned about what you're going to say tonight, and we decided that the best route is to take the show off the air.' "

He joked: "I started booing," after Colbert's audience booed the decision.

But Kimmel continued: "I said, 'I don't think that's a good idea,' and they said, 'Well, we think it's a good idea.' Then there was a vote and I lost the vote.

"I put my pants back on, and I walked out to my office, and I called in some of the ex ecutive producers. There are about nine people in there.

"And I said, 'They're pulling the show off the air.' And I was - my wife said I was white, I was whiter than Jim Gaffigan when I came out of there."

Kimmel admitted the first thing that occurred to him afterwards was that his show was "never coming back on air".

He said: "I thought, that's it, it's over. It is over. I was like I'm never coming back on the air.

"That's really what I thought. So we told our staff - meanwhile the whole audience was in their seats."

The Jimmy Kimmel Live! guests were also ready to tape the show that night, and British musician Howard Jones recorded song Things Can Only Get Better for a future performance, which Kimmel finds "funny" now.

News of the programme going off air was celebrated by US President Donald Trump.

But Trump has since admitted he "can't believe" ABC gave Kimmel "his job back", after the show returned to ABC.