Jimmy Kimmel will be back less than a week after being “indefinitely” pulled off the air by ABC. The late show will be returning on Tuesday night.
“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,” said an ABC spokesperson. “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.“
Kimmel’s comments about the killer of Charlie Kirk on his Monday show prompted quite an uproar. He said, “We hit some 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 with everything they can to score political points from it.” Since the murder, there has been a lot of controversy and speculation regarding the potential political motivations behind the killing.
FCC chairman Brendan Carr then threatened ABC to “find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” adding that Kimmel’s comments were “some of the sickest conduct possible.” Nexstar, a major owner of local stations, quickly said it would “preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future” as it “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk.” Disney also decided to hit pause on the production of the show. Many took this as the government directly threatening free speech and have spoken out against it.
There has also been a Disney boycott, with many calling for folks to cancel their subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu.
Before the show was pulled, Kimmel was apparently set to address the comments head-on the following evening. I imagine he will likely have something to say when he’s back on the air tomorrow, both about the remarks and the resulting disturbance.
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