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\n Jimmy Kimmel returned to his late-night stage Tuesday night and urged viewers to stand up to President Trump\u2019s threats. Shortly before Kimmel\u2019s show aired, the president sent out a new missive against Kimmel\u2019s network, ABC.\n <\/p>\n
\n In an eloquent and emotional monologue, Kimmel assailed \u201canti-American\u201d efforts to curtail speech in the United States and signaled that he won\u2019t temper his criticism of the president after a nearly week-long suspension of his show amid pressure from the Trump administration.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis show is not important,\u201d Kimmel told viewers. \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 Kimmel 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 off the air,\u201d a reference to CBS host Stephen Colbert, \u201cand 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
\n Kimmel predicted that ABC and its parent company Disney would come under further scrutiny from the Trump administration for reinstating his show, days after Trump wrongly said Kimmel had been \u201cfired.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Noting that Trump has openly rooted for Kimmel\u2019s cancellation \u2014 and thereby the loss of work for his staffers \u2014 the comedian said, \u201cOur leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can\u2019t take a joke.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Then Kimmel noted that Trump has also called for NBC to fire \u201cTonight Show\u201d host Jimmy Fallon. \u201cI hope that if that happens, or if there\u2019s even any hint of that happening, you will be ten times as loud as you were this week,\u201d Kimmel said. \u201cWe have to speak out against this,\u201d he added over the approving cheers of his studio audience.\n <\/p>\n
\n Attendees told CNN that Kimmel received a several-minute-long standing ovation when he walked on stage for Tuesday evening\u2019s taping.\n <\/p>\n
\n Clearly fighting through tears, Kimmel thanked those who\u2019d supported him during his suspension, including a lengthy roster of fellow comedians. \u201cMaybe most of all,\u201d he said, \u201cI want to thank the people who don\u2019t support my show and what I believe, but support my right to share those beliefs anyway.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/still-21970802-223688-899-still.jpg\")
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\n He named conservative media and political figures like Ben Shapiro, Clay Travis, Candace Owens, Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, and \u201ceven my old pal Ted Cruz,\u201d alluding to Kimmel\u2019s ruthless mockery of Sen. Cruz in the past.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Emmy-winning host grew visibly emotional as he addressed his Sept. 15 remarks about Charlie Kirk\u2019s suspected killer that led ABC to halt production of his show.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,\u201d Kimmel said. \u201cNor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Kimmel also praised Kirk\u2019s widow, Erika, for speaking at Sunday\u2019s memorial service about forgiving her husband\u2019s assassin.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt touched me deeply,\u201d he said, \u201cand I hope it touches many, and if there\u2019s anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n There was a conservative outcry last week after Kimmel asserted that the \u201cMAGA gang\u201d was \u201cdesperately trying\u201d to characterize the suspect \u201cas anything other than one of them.\u201d Kimmel also claimed that Trump loyalists were \u201cdoing everything they can to score political points\u201d from the assassination.\n <\/p>\n
\n After Kimmel\u2019s comments were publicized by right-wing websites and TV shows, the Trump-aligned FCC chairman Carr called it \u201cthe sickest conduct possible\u201d and suggested that the FCC could move to revoke ABC affiliate licenses.\n <\/p>\n
\n Carr has since downplayed his role in the Kimmel drama, casting it as a dispute between local station owners and the national network. But some of those local owners \u2014 like Nexstar, which is trying to merge with another big station group, Tegna \u2014 have pending business before the FCC, making them uniquely vulnerable to Carr\u2019s public pressure.\n <\/p>\n
\n Both Nexstar and Sinclair told ABC that they were going to preempt Kimmel\u2019s show last Wednesday, which contributed to the network\u2019s decision to yank the late-night show nationwide. Hollywood leaders were astonished; free speech groups were appalled; and the episode triggered a multi-day news cycle about free speech and corporate capitulation to political pressure.\n <\/p>\n
\n Widespread criticism of the Kimmel suspension even led people to cancel their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions, although the bottom-line impact of the grassroots boycott is unclear. Kimmel joked Tuesday night that Disney wanted him to read aloud some instructions for reinstating Disney+ subscriptions.\n <\/p>\n
\n With the show on pause last week, Disney CEO Bob Iger and his leadership team sought to lower the proverbial temperature and get Kimmel back on the air.\n <\/p>\n
\n Following discussions with Kimmel and his attorneys, Disney announced that the show would resume production on Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n
\n The company gently chastised Kimmel in a statement, calling the aftermath of the Kirk killing an \u201cemotional moment for our country\u201d and saying \u201cwe felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Kimmel said on the air Tuesday night that he \u201cwas not happy\u201d with the suspension. But mostly, he expressed gratitude to Disney for \u201callowing me to use their platform\u201d night after night.\n <\/p>\n
\n He also poked fun at the fact that Tuesday\u2019s show was preempted in dozens of markets across the US, including major cities like Washington, DC, Seattle and Nashville. That\u2019s because Sinclair and Nexstar are continuing to protest Kimmel.\n <\/p>\n
\n And, as usual, Kimmel made some jokes at Trump\u2019s expense. He shared a clip of Trump on Air Force One last week, attacking Kimmel for having \u201cno ratings.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Kimmel then retorted on stage: \u201cWell, I do tonight.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n About an hour before the broadcast, Trump weighed in on ABC\u2019s restoration of the show for the first time, commenting on Truth Social that \u201cthe White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled!\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Trump once again used his political platform to threaten ABC, saying of Kimmel, \u201cHe is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we\u2019re going to test ABC out on this.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cLet\u2019s see how we do,\u201d Trump continued. \u201cLast time I went after them, they gave me $16 million dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Disney agreed to pay Trump about $16 million last December to settle a defamation lawsuit that he had lodged against ABC.\n <\/p>\n
\n Stephanie Elam and Elizabeth Wagmeister contributed reporting.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People in entertainment Donald Trump Human rights Freedom of speech See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link Jimmy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-34542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}