Disney executives are reportedly engaged in talks to get Jimmy Kimmel back on the air after the late-night host was “suspended indefinitely” on Wednesday (September 17) over comments he made about Charlie Kirk‘s fatal shooting on Monday’s (September 15) Jimmy Kimmel Live.
According to Deadline, discord has erupted inside Disney over Kimmel’s suspension, with a series of “mixed face-to-face and virtual meetings” between the company’s top execs and Kimmel and his team taking place throughout Thursday (September 18).
“It’s an ongoing discussion, with a lot of distrust on one side,” an insider told Deadline. “There’s no light at the end of the tunnel — yet.”
ABC made the decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live! after powerful station group Nexstar announced it would preempt the show on its 32 ABC affiliate stations late Wednesday. Sinclair Broadcast Group later announced it would be doing the same on its own affiliate stations.
This came after threats from Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr earlier in the day, who told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Per Deadline, in addition to Kimmel and his staff, members of the Disney studio and corporate management felt that Disney Entertainment boss Dana Walden and CEO Bob Iger “bent too easily to MAGA pressure yet again.”
“The reaction is like ‘Don’t Say Gay’ on steroids,” one executive told the outlet, referring to the backlash in 2022 after former CEO Bob Chapek’s initial response to Florida’s 2022 Parental Rights in Education Act law, which restricts discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity among kindergarten to 3rd Grade in Florida schools.
One Disney exec added, “This is not how we thought Bob [Iger] would handle this. Senior people told him this is not what we should be doing.”
ABC’s decision has sparked protests outside Disney HQ and the Jimmy Kimmel Live! studio. Several Hollywood stars have also spoken out, including Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, who insisted he won’t work with Disney until Kimmel is reinstated, and She-Hulk star Tatiana Maslany, who encouraged people to cancel their Disney+ subscriptions.
Another exec told Deadline that long meetings were held on Wednesday about what Kimmel had said about the Kirk shooting and what he planned to say on that night’s show. However, ABC yanked the show off the air before Kimmel had a chance to respond.
“It’s such a betrayal,” the exec stated.
Talks regarding Kimmel’s return to ABC are set to continue today, Friday, September 19.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
