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Bob Iger addressed Jimmy Kimmel’s 2025 suspension in a new interview
The former Disney CEO responded to the ordeal in a Wednesday, June 24 interview with the Financial Times
“We thought it was in bad taste,” Iger said of a comment Kimmel made on air about Charlie Kirk
Bob Iger is speaking out about Jimmy Kimmel‘s suspension from ABC, nine months after the talk-show host was temporarily pulled from air.
On Wednesday, June 24, the former Disney CEO — who served in the position for the Walt Disney Company from 2005 to 2020 and again from November 2022 until March 2026 — spoke with the Financial Times about his tenure at the company.
During the interview, Iger claimed Kimmel’s September 2025 suspension, which lasted six days and followed a comment the host made about late conservative personality Charlie Kirk, was not politically motivated, as President Donald Trump continually calls for Kimmel’s removal from air.
“That was not the case,” Iger said. “We thought it was in bad taste. … We just wanted him to acknowledge that it was an ill-timed and probably inappropriate comment.”
Jimmy Kimmel
Credit: Randy Holmes/Disney/Getty
On Sept. 17, 2026, ABC and Nexstar confirmed to PEOPLE that Jimmy Kimmel Live! had been pulled “indefinitely” due to the host’s remarks about the fatal shooting of Kirk two days prior.
During the monologue, Kimmel, 58, said there were “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.”
He then pointed to a clip of Trump partially addressing reporters’ questions about Kirk’s death and moving on to comment on the construction of the White House ballroom. “Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief, construction,” the comedian said.
After his comments, Kimmel returned to air on Sept. 23.
At the time, the network said it felt “some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive” but had opted to bring the show back after “thoughtful conversations with Jimmy.”
During the ordeal, FCC Chair Brendan Carr praised Nexstar — the largest local broadcast and digital media company in the U.S. — for pressuring ABC to remove Kimmel from air. Trump himself also questioned Kimmel’s return and threatened to “test ABC.”
In the months since, Trump has continually blasted Kimmel on social media and Kimmel has continually called out the president during his monologues.
The president’s latest attacks on Kimmel came as Trump again called for his firing after an on-air joke about Melania Trump in April. At the time, Kimmel offered an “alternative” White House Correspondents’ Dinner gag days before the real thing, and joked that the first lady had “a glow like an expectant widow” and would be spending her birthday “looking out a window and whispering, ‘What have I done?'”
Days later, a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25. After, Melania, 56, then claimed in a scathing post shared on the official FLOTUS X account that Kimmel was responsible for “hateful and violent rhetoric.”
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In his latest interview, Iger said he “wholeheartedly” endorsed Disney not punishing the late-night host after Trump’s latest calls and the FCC’s decision to order Disney into an early renewal process for station licenses.
“I’m thoroughly supportive,” Iger said of Disney and ABC. “It’s what we anticipated needing to do if the government’s threats turned into action.”
Read the original article on People