LOS ANGELES — Returning to the air to thunderous cheers and applause in his first episode since ABC suspended his late-night show, Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday took direct aim at President Donald Trump while also trying to smooth tensions following his joke about the Republican reaction to the killing of Charlie Kirk.
“You understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” Kimmel said, his voice breaking, during his opening monologue. “I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”
Disney-owned ABC took “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air last Wednesday after conservative fury over comments Kimmel made during a show monologue and after public criticism from the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission.
A furious backlash to ABC’s decision followed, with prominent voices in and outside the entertainment industry saying it amounted to an attack on free speech by the administration.
Kimmel said Tuesday that the Trump administration “tried to coerce the affiliates who run our show, in the cities that you live in, to take my show off the air.”
“That’s not legal. That’s not American, that is un-American, and it’s so dangerous,” he said.
The events that led to Kimmel’s suspension began Sept. 15, five days after a gunman fatally shot Kirk, a popular activist on the right, as Kirk was at a public event at Utah Valley University in Orem.
Kimmel’s comments came at a time when investigators had not released details about the suspect’s potential motives.
Jimmy Kimmel on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in Los Angeles on Tuesday. (Randy Holmes / Disney)
“We hit some new lows over the weekend, with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said in the monologue.
Tyler Robinson, 22, was charged the next day with Kirk’s murder. In charging documents, prosecutors released text messages in which, they said, Robinson said he targeted Kirk because he had “had enough of his hatred.”
During his monologue Tuesday, Kimmel said it had not been his intention to “blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual.”
He also praised Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, for saying at a memorial Sunday that she has forgiven her husband’s killer.
“She forgave him. That is an example we should follow,” Kimmel said, emotion in his voice. “If you believe in the teachings of Jesus, as I do, there it was. That, that’s it. A selfless act of grace. Forgiveness from a grieving widow.”
“It touched me deeply, and I hope it touches many,” Kimmel said. “And if there’s anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that.”
Dandidi outside the taping of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Tuesday. (Alex Welsh for NBC News)
On Tuesday outside the El Capitan Entertainment Centre in Hollywood, where “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is taped, ticket holders were eager to file in to be in the audience. Gabriela De Vries, who is from Germany, said she was shocked when the show got pulled off the air just as she had flown in to see Kimmel.
Dressed head to toe in a star-spangled outfit and matching face paint, a man who goes by Dandidi applauded those who “pressured [Disney] by taking action — no thoughts and prayers, action — by canceling their Disney, putting that heat under them.”
ABC suspended Kimmel’s show after FCC Chair Brendan Carr described his monologue jokes as “the sickest conduct possible” in an interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson. Carr threatened regulatory action.
Hours later, Nexstar Media Group said it would pre-empt Kimmel’s show for the “foreseeable future” on all its ABC-affiliated channels. Carr thanked Nexstar for “doing the right thing” on X and encouraged other local broadcasters to follow its lead.
Sinclair, another broadcast ownership group, quickly followed Nexstar in saying it, too, would pre-empt Kimmel’s show on its 30 ABC-affiliated stations. The companies reiterated this week that they would continue to do so.
Both companies have pending business before the FCC. Nexstar said last month it intends to put in a bid to buy another broadcast company, Tegna, which would most likely require the FCC to loosen its 39% cap on national television audience reach. Sinclair is exploring merger options for its broadcast business, according to CNBC.
Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday wrote to the corporate heads of both Nexstar and Sinclair, asking how their decisions to pre-empt Kimmel’s show “may relate to regulatory issues pending with the Trump administration.”
Guillermo Rodriguez and Jimmy Kimmel hug on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Tuesday. (Randy Holmes / Disney)
A spokesperson for ABC had initially said Kimmel’s show would be “pre-empted indefinitely,” sparking immediate backlash, with many decrying what they described as an infringement on his constitutional right to free speech and others calling for a boycott of the Disney-owned streaming services Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN.
Comedian, actor and podcaster Marc Maron called on free speech advocates to speak out against pulling Kimmel’s show.
“If you have any concern or belief in real freedom or the Constitution and free speech, this is it,” Maron said in a video on his Instagram account. “This is the deciding moment; this is what authoritarianism looks like in this country. It’s happening.”
Even some Republicans took issue with the matter.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Friday on his podcast that while he thought what Kimmel said was wrong, what Carr was doing was “unbelievably dangerous.” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called Carr’s comments about Kimmel “absolutely inappropriate” in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Carr later denied that he threatened the stations, saying Monday that he was referring to the FCC’s ability to review a license because of a “news distortion complaint.” He said Disney made its own “business decision” to pre-empt Kimmel’s show.
“What I’ve been very clear in the context of the Kimmel episode is the FCC, and myself in particular, have expressed no view on the ultimate merits had something like that been filed, what our take would be one way or another,” Carr said.
After days of mounting pressure, Disney said Monday that Kimmel would return to the air in a statement that did not address the freedom-of-speech concerns or the calls for a boycott.
Kimmel said in Tuesday’s monologue that Trump has targeted his critics on late-night television to intimidate them and to bully corporations to remove them.
“The president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke,” Kimmel said.
“We have to speak out against this,” he said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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