{"id":2289472,"date":"2026-02-19T17:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T17:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2289472"},"modified":"2026-02-19T17:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T17:48:13","slug":"a-late-night-monologue-a-shocking-suspension-and-a-reinstatement-jimmy-kimmels-still-taking-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/a-late-night-monologue-a-shocking-suspension-and-a-reinstatement-jimmy-kimmels-still-taking-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"A late-night monologue, a shocking suspension \u2013 and a reinstatement. Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s still taking risks"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n In September of last year, late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel found himself thrust into the spotlight \u2014 one that reached far beyond his studio stage.\n <\/p>\n

\n The late-night scene was already in upheaval after CBS abruptly canceled Stephen Colbert\u2019s show<\/a> that summer, a move that sent shockwaves through the industry and fueled speculation about the future of the long-standing comedy format.\n <\/p>\n

\n So when Kimmel\u2019s comments connected to the alleged killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk went viral for all the wrong reasons, the risks were even higher than usual.\n <\/p>\n

\n As outrage on the right flared all the way up to the White House, the host and his staff received a barrage of threats, with their personal information doxxed. An administration official threatened to revoke ABC affiliate licenses. Just hours later, ABC suspended Kimmel\u2019s show \u201cindefinitely.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n It was a moment that even Kimmel himself would later admit his show might not have survived. \u201cI was like, I\u2019m never coming back on the air<\/a>,\u201d he later said. But he was wrong \u2013 he did come back.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the days following Kirk\u2019s assassination<\/a>, Kimmel \u2013 no stranger to stirring the pot with pointed political humor \u2013 focused on perceptions around the alleged killer<\/a>, saying \u201cthe MAGA Gang (was) desperately trying to characterize this kid\u201d as \u201canything other than one of them.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Kimmel also mocked President Donald Trump for talking about the White House East Wing renovation<\/a> when a member of the press asked him how he was personally coping with Kirk\u2019s death.\n <\/p>\n

\n The funnyman again discussed the politicization of Kirk\u2019s assassination on the following night\u2019s show, saying \u201cmany in MAGA-land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n As a growing chorus of right-wing media pundits took issue, conservative podcaster Benny Johnson had Brendan Carr, head of the Federal Communications Commission, on his show to address the situation.\n <\/p>\n

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\n Carr, whose agency licenses local TV stations across the country, said the matter could be handled \u201cthe easy way or the hard way\u201d for ABC and parent company Disney.\n <\/p>\n

\n Just hours later, station group owners Nexstar and Sinclair said they would no longer be airing Kimmel\u2019s show in their respective markets. Shortly after, ABC announced it was removing the program from the air entirely, saying \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The move to take Kimmel off the air sparked a firestorm, with critics blasting the FCC<\/a> for overreach and encroachment on free speech, especially since Nexstar was in the process of seeking FCC approval for a proposed merger with another station group owner, Tegna.\n <\/p>\n

\n The suspension even caused a consumer boycott of Disney+ and Hulu, streaming platforms that are part of Disney\u2019s portfolio.\n <\/p>\n

\n Speaking with celebrity.land\u2019s Erin Burnett after Kimmel\u2019s show was taken off the air, the lone Democrat-aligned FCC commissioner, Anna Gomez, said, \u201cthe First Amendment does not allow us, the FCC, to tell broadcasters what they can broadcast.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\n \"A<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n \u201cI saw the clip. He did not make any unfounded claims, but he did make a joke, one that others may even find crude, but that is neither illegal nor grounds for companies to capitulate to this administration in ways that violate the First Amendment,\u201d Gomez told celebrity.land. \u201cThis sets a dangerous new precedent, and companies must stand firm against any efforts to trade away First Amendment freedom.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Even Republican Sen. Ted Cruz \u2014 a longtime target of Kimmel\u2019s ire \u2014 denounced the FCC\u2019s comments ahead of the preemption<\/a> as \u201cunbelievably dangerous\u201d and compared some of Carr\u2019s rhetoric to \u201cmafioso\u201d tactics.\n <\/p>\n

\n Others, however, took issue with Kimmel\u2019s comments immediately following Kirk\u2019s assassination, and welcomed his show going off the air.\n <\/p>\n

\n Those included Trump himself, who posted on social media<\/a>: \u201cGreat News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Several people who spoke to celebrity.land at the time said that Disney employees and staff members on \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d began to receive death threats following Carr\u2019s remarks, with their email addresses and phone numbers doxxed and blasted across social media.\n <\/p>\n

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\n \"The<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n According to one of the individuals familiar with the situation, Kimmel was prepared to deliver his monologue the night he was taken off the air and had planned to address the right-wing backlash to his remarks. This individual described Kimmel\u2019s planned monologue as \u201cvery hot\u201d at the time, taking aim at the MAGA base.\n <\/p>\n

\n That was when Disney\/ABC executives spoke with Kimmel and decided to preempt the show indefinitely \u2013 in hopes of protecting Kimmel and the Disney brand from accelerating the controversy.\n <\/p>\n

\n Later, as a guest on \u201cThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert\u201d after his suspension, Kimmel described the moment<\/a> ABC gave him the news he was being pulled. With five writers in his office at the time, the only private place where he could take the call was the bathroom.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSo I go into the bathroom, and I\u2019m on the phone with the ABC executives, and they say, \u2018Listen, we want to take the temperature down. We\u2019re concerned about what you\u2019re going to say tonight, and we decided that the best route is to take the show off the air\u2026 I said, \u2018I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a good idea,\u2019 and they said, \u2018Well, we think it\u2019s a good idea.\u2019 Then there was a vote, and I lost the vote.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\n Kimmel added that he called some of the show\u2019s executive producers into his office to share the news, and said he turned white. \u201cI thought, that\u2019s it. It\u2019s over, it\u2019s over. I was like, I\u2019m never coming back on the air.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Kimmel could have walked away at that point. Or, he could have folded in the face of opposition and offered to self-censor in his monologues.\n <\/p>\n

\n Instead, he he remained engaged, taking phone calls from many contacts on both sides of the aisle, and fought behind the scenes to keep his show. And one week later, he was back on the air.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cLast 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,\u201d Disney said in a statement at the time. \u201cIt 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.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And so Kimmel returned \u2013 his way, and with newfound momentum.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis show is not important,\u201d Kimmel told viewers on his first night back. \u201cWhat\u2019s important is that we live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Kimmel spoke about spending time with comedians from countries where people \u201cget thrown in prison for making fun of those in power, and worse.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey know how lucky we are here,\u201d he said. \u201cOur freedom to speak is what they admire most about this country, and that\u2019s something I\u2019m embarrassed to say I took for granted until they pulled my friend Stephen (Colbert) off the air and tried to coerce the affiliates who run our show in the cities that you live in to take my show off the air. That\u2019s not legal. That\u2019s not American. That is un-American.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\n He also addressed the remarks that led ABC to suspend his show, saying it was never his \u201cintention to make light of the murder of a young man.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n He \u201cwas not happy\u201d about his show\u2019s suspension, he said; but he also expressed gratitude to Disney for \u201callowing me to use their platform\u201d night after night.\n <\/p>\n

\n The monologue video from Kimmel\u2019s return has become his most-viewed monologue of all time on YouTube, and his first post-suspension show averaged 6.3 million viewers via traditional television, more than three times the show\u2019s typical TV viewership. In the key advertiser-friendly demographic of viewers ages 18 to 49, the show scored its \u201chighest regularly scheduled episode in over 10 years,\u201d ABC said at the time.\n <\/p>\n

\n And Kimmel didn\u2019t back off from his trademark commentary on the Trump administration, sharing a clip of the president on Air Force One the week prior, attacking Kimmel for having \u201cno ratings.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWell, I do tonight,\u201d Kimmel said, to raucous applause.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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