ABC will be putting Jimmy Kimmel Live! back on the air on Tuesday, less than a week after the show was abruptly suspended over comments made by its host. The network announced last Wednesday that the popular late-night show would be suspended “indefinitely” in response to Kimmel’s comments about the political response to conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death.
“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,” The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, said in a statement on Monday. “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.”
During his monologue on Sept. 15, Kimmel said that President Trump‘s supporters were trying to “score political points” by portraying Kirk’s accused killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, as a left-wing radical, and suggested that Robinson was “one of them.”
His comments prompted Nexstar, which owns hundreds of TV stations across the country, to say it would preempt Kimmel’s show on all of its affiliates. Disney responded by pausing production on the show. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, had threatened to “take action” against Kimmel for his comments earlier that day.
“Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said during a conversation with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.
More than 400 Hollywood stars signed a letter published Monday that condemned the “threats to our freedom of speech” they believe Kimmel’s suspension represents.
“Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country,” the letter said. “We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power — because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.”
Demonstrators picket outside of Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif., on Sept. 18. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
Other late-night hosts also stood behind Kimmel.
“This is a big moment in our democracy, and we must all stand up for the principles of free expression,” Seth Meyers, host of NBC’s Late Night, said last week. “There’s a reason free speech is in the very first amendment. It stands above all others.”
Even some of Trump’s most dedicated political allies expressed concerns about the implications of pulling someone off the air over their political comments.
“I think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying we’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off air if we don’t like what you’re saying,” Republican senator Ted Cruz said on his podcast on Friday.
ABC’s decision to end Kimmel’s suspension does not necessarily mean the show will be available in all markets. Nexstar could choose to stick to its vow not to air it. Sinclair Inc., the largest owner of ABC affiliates in the country, could do the same. Last week, Sinclair released a statement saying it would not broadcast the show until “appropriate steps” had been completed, including a demand that Kimmel make a direct apology to Kirk’s family and make a sizable donation to Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA.
The Trump administration has pushed back on the implication that Kimmel’s suspension represents government censorship.
“This is about Nexstar and Sinclair vs. Disney, and that’s ultimately a business decision,” Carr told conservative radio host Dana Loesch last week.
Trump, who praised ABC for its “courage” when news of the suspension broke, argued that the decision had to do with Kimmel’s talent and popularity, not the government’s intervention.
“He had very bad ratings and they should have fired him a long time ago,” he said, referring to the suspension, during a trip to the United Kingdom last week. “So, you know, you can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”