Jimmy Kimmel will be returning to air nearly a week after ABC pulled his late-night program, Jimmy Kimmel Live, over the host’s comments about the death of Charlie Kirk.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” ABC’s corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company, said in a statement Monday.
The company added, “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
ABC announced last week that Kimmel’s show was going off the air “indefinitely” after he said of Kirk’s alleged killer, “We had 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 with everything they can to score political points from it.”
The ABC move came after Nexstar Media Group, the owner of many local TV stations, issued a press release objecting to Kimmel’s remarks and saying that its ABC affiliates would be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live. (Nextstar recently made headlines by announcing a $6.2 billion deal to acquire another broadcast station owner, Tegna. The deal would require government approval.)
Hours before Kimmel’s suspension, Brendan Carr, the FCC chair appointed by President Donald Trump, had advocated for the move during an interview with The Benny Show. “Disney needs to see some change here, but the individual licensed stations that are taking their content, it’s time for them to step up and say this, you know, garbage to the extent that that’s what comes down the pipe in the future isn’t something that we think serves the needs of our local communities,” Carr said.
Kimmel’s suspension was met by a chorus of critics, including current and former hosts of similar talk shows that regularly skewer the political news of the day. Conan O’Brien wrote that Kimmel’s suspension “should disturb everyone on the Right, Left, and Center,” while Bill Maher called out ABC for remaining silent after yanking Jimmy Kimmel Live from the air.
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Some stars even moved to cancel their Disney+ subscriptions in solidarity with Kimmel.
More than 400 prominent artists — including actors, comedians, musicians, writers, and directors — signed a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union blasting ABC and condemning Kimmel’s suspension as an effort to silence artists, journalists, and media companies, calling it a “dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation.”
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Jimmy Kimmel
The signers included Freakier Friday star Jamie Lee Curtis; Thunderbolts actresses Florence Pugh and Julia-Louis Dreyfus; The Mandalorian actor Pedro Pascal; Only Murders in the Building stars Meryl Streep, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez; Grey’s Anatomy alum T.R. Knight; pop star Olivia Rodrigo; Andor creator Tony Gilroy and star Diego Luna; Agatha All Along lead Kathryn Hahn; Marvel star Mark Ruffalo; and Hamilton creator Lin Manuel Miranda.
Some of the voices praising Kimmel’s suspension include conservative figures like Megyn Kelly and President Trump, the latter of whom said Kimmel has “ZERO talent, and worse ratings” than fellow late-night host Stephen Colbert.
While late-night ratings have trended downward in recent years, Kimmel actually leads late-night in the key 18-49-year-old demographic, according to recent stats from LateNighter. Kimmel averages 220,000 viewers in the coveted demo, ahead of Colbert (219,000) and Jimmy Fallon (157,000).
Kimmel has yet to publicly address his suspension or scheduled return to air.
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