Jimmy Kimmel will resume his talk show Tuesday night.
In the wake of its Trump-favored, furor-sparking decision to pull comedian the comedian off the air last week, Disney and and ABC have announced that the comedian will be back. His being yankede off the air became a flash-point for freedom of speech issues, and triggered a boycott that reportedly cost the company billions.
Jimmy Kimmel is coming back.
ABC said on Monday that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would return to its airwaves on Tuesday, ending an impasse that began last week.
“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.
“It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive,” the statement said. “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.”
Disney did not say whether all ABC affiliates, some of which balked at carrying “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last week, would carry Tuesday’s show.
,,,,Disney’s decision to bench one of its signature personalities came after two major station owners, Nexstar Media and Sinclair, said they would pre-empt his program following a Kimmel monologue last Monday during which he offered remarks tied to the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Those announcements came after Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr appeared to suggest to broadcasters they ought to work to curb Kimmel and force ABC to remove him from its schedule.
And yet, after Kimmel was taken off the air, Disney faced protest from the creative community. On Monday, 400 celebrities — including people like Martin Short and Tom Hanks, who have created memorable characters for Disney in the recent past — signed a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union decrying the blow the maneuver delivered to free speech in America. First Amendment advocates from both sides of the political aisle have decried the situation in recent days.
The decision to bring Kimmel back was approved by Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, and Dana Walden, co-chair of Disney Entertainment, according to a person familiar with the matter. The executives acted based on what was best for the company, this person said, and not on external factors. Indeed, it remains unclear if all ABC affiliates will air Kimmel’s program. Spokespersons for Nexstar and Sinclair could not be reached for immediate comment.
It is not clear if Kimmel will offer an apology for his remarks, but whatever he and Disney executives agreed to have him do will be seen Tuesday night. In the past, late-night hosts have had to tender apologies for remarks that offended, with David Letterman, Bill Maher and Samantha Bee among those who had to express regret for jokes or one-liners that caused more outrage than laughter.
The comedian offended conservatives by discussing some of the theories about Kirk’s death, caused by an assassin who shot him in Utah. “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” Kimmel said. He also poked fun at President Trump’s response to a question from the press about how he was mourning Kirk’s death after Trump pivoted to a discussion of the construction of a new White House ballroom.
And:
Disney’s decision to take Kimmel off the air put a new spotlight on how uncertain traditional media companies have become in an era when the White House and the Federal Communications Commission pounce on individual reports with comments and legal pushback. President Trump has in recent months sued both ABC News and CBS News for comments made by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos and the editing of an interview with former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes.” In both cases, the companies agreed to pay multi-million dollar settlements, even though the legal cases were deemed to be quite flimsy by experts.
In a different era, late-night hosts were more measured in their commentary. Johnny Carson famously kept his politics to himself, while poking fun at whoever happened to be in the White House. In recent years, however, hot talk and political humor have driven social-media chatter and viral pass-along — and ratings. Meanwhile, the audiences for the programs have begun to dwindle, with an increasing number of would-be viewers opting to sift through clips of the various shows on social media the day after the original episodes aired. Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” on CBS has been the most watched of TV’s late-night programs as the host followed a theme of commenting on the latest headlines. For a good part of Colbert’s tenure on TV, President Trump has been at the center of them.
The suspension drew quick praise from President Trump and some vocal right-wing “FAFO” Kimmel critics online, but few others.
Instead, it sparked a massive outpouring of criticism of Disney, Nexstar and Sinclair for caving to pressure. Media pundits, politicians, Hollywood unions, celebrities, other talk show hosts and even some Republican leaders (such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul) condemned the series of the events as a dangerous step toward networks becoming state-run media, with many framing it as a potential “tipping point” moment if Disney didn’t reverse its decision. Some people online pledged to unsubscribe and boycott Disney subsidiaries such as Disney+ and Hulu.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X, “The @GOP does not believe in free speech. They are censoring you in real time.” Former President Barack Obama also weighed in, writing, “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t.”
Ben Stiller wrote on X, “This isn’t right.” Jamie Lee Curtis — who previously shared a post grieving over Kirk — expressed her support for Kimmel. Emmy winner Jean Smart said she was “horrified” by the move. Podcast pioneer Marc Maron wrote, “If you have any concern or belief in real freedom or the constitution and free speech, this is. This is the deciding moment, this is what authoritarianism looks like in this country, it’s happening.”
Hollywood unions — including SAG-AFTRA and the WGA — slammed the decision. “The right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other — to disturb, even — is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people,” the WGA wrote in a statement. “It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice.” On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union released an open letter signed by some 400 actors, writers, musicians and filmmakers — among them Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Ramy Youssef and Kerry Washington — condemning Kimmel’s suspension and supporting free speech.
Of course, Kimmel’s return also comes at a tumultuous moment for late night TV more generally, with Stephen Colbert’s Late Show set to end in May after being canceled by CBS. The decision by CBS raised eyebrows across the industry, coming just days before the FCC approved the transfer of broadcast licenses to its new owner Skydance, effectively allowing the deal to close.
Kimmel’s current contract, it should be noted, ends next year, and he has raised the specter of retirement in the past. Whether the suspension by ABC means that he is more likely to exit, or double down and stay with the company, remains to be seen.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.