NEW YORK (AP) — Jimmy Kimmel returned to late-night television Tuesday after a nearly weeklong suspension that triggered a national discussion about freedom of speech and President Donald Trump’s ability to police the words of journalists, commentators and even comics.
An audience filed in to watch Kimmel’s return in a Hollywood taping. There were no immediate reports on what Kimmel said.
ABC, which suspended Kimmel’s show last Wednesday following criticism of his comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, announced Monday that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would return after the network had “thoughtful conversations” with the host.
His viewership was more limited than usual. Two companies that owned ABC affiliates said they would not put Kimmel’s show on, leaving audiences in such cities as St. Louis, Nashville, Tennessee, and Richmond, Virginia to watch something else. The Sinclair and Nexstar corporations collectively control about a quarter of ABC affiliates.
“Our long national late nightmare is over,” Stephen Colbert joked on his CBS show in response to Kimmel’s reinstatement.
Kimmel, who has been publicly silent since his suspension, posted Tuesday on his Instagram account a picture of himself with the late television producer and free speech advocate Norman Lear. “Missing this guy today,” he wrote.
ABC suspended Kimmel “indefinitely” after comments he made in a monologue last week. Kimmel, who has been a relentless Trump critic in his comedy, suggested that many Trump supporters were trying to capitalize on Kirk’s death and were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
FCC chair accuses host of misleading the public
Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr last week said it appeared that Kimmel was trying to “directly mislead the American public” with his remarks about Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old Utah man charged with Kirk’s killing, and his motives. Those motives remain unclear. Authorities say Robinson grew up in a conservative family, but his mother told investigators his son had turned left politically in the last year.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said before ABC announced the suspension. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Those remarks set a backlash in motion, with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz saying that Carr acted like “a mafioso.” Hundreds of entertainment luminaries, including Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand and Jennifer Aniston, signed a letter circulated by the American Civil Liberties Union that called ABC’s move “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation.”
Podcaster Joe Rogan weighed in Tuesday on Kimmel’s side. “I definitely don’t think that the government should be involved — ever — in dictating what a comedian can or can’t say in a monologue,” Rogan said. “You are crazy for supporting this because this will be used on you.”
Some consumers punished ABC parent Disney by canceling subscriptions to its streaming services.
Trump had hailed Kimmel’s suspension and criticized his return, writing on his Truth Social platform: “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back … Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE.”
Trump’s administration has used threats, lawsuits and federal government pressure to try to exert more control over the media industry. Trump sued ABC and CBS over news coverage, which the companies settled. Trump has also filed defamation lawsuits against The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and successfully urged Congress to strip federal funding from NPR and PBS.
Show lineup will include at least one friendly guest
He will have at least one friendly guest. After pulling out of her planned performance at the premiere of Hulu’s Lilith Fair documentary in protest over Kimmel’s suspension, singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan will appear on Kimmel’s show as the musical guest. McLachlan had been booked on the show prior to the preemption, a representative told The Associated Press.
The other guest, according to an ABC lineup released Tuesday afternoon, will be actor Glen Powell, who was listed as a guest for this week on the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” ticket site even before Kimmel’s suspension. Like McLachlan, he’s promoting a Hulu release, “Chad Powers,” as is former NFL star Peyton Manning, a Thursday guest.
Disney and ABC executives reportedly negotiated Kimmel’s return for several days before announcing the resolution. The ABC statement said the suspension happened because some of Kimmel’s comments were “ill-timed and thus insensitive,” but it did not call them misleading.
Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson for Turning Point USA, the organization founded by Kirk and now headed by his widow, posted on X that “Disney and ABC caving and allowing Kimmel back on the air is not surprising, but it’s their mistake to make.”
The suspension happened at a time when the late-night landscape is shifting. Shows are losing viewers, in part because many watch highlights the next day online. CBS announced the cancellation of Colbert’s show over the summer. Kimmel’s contract with ABC reportedly lasts through May.
Colbert, in his opening monologue Monday, grabbed his recently won Emmy Award for outstanding talk series, saying, “Once more, I am the only martyr on late night!”
Associated Press journalists Maria Sherman, Mark Kennedy in New York and Alicia Rancilio in Detroit contributed to this report.
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