Jimmy Kimmel Returns: ABC Ends Suspension on Tuesday
Jimmy Kimmel returns to late-night TV.
Disney and ABC will bring the comedian back to its schedule starting Tuesday night, after a decision to take his show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” off the air for an indefinite period of time.
“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. It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive,” the company said in a statement. “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’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.
After Kimmel was taken off the air, Disney faced protest from the creative community.
On Monday, 400 celebrities, including Oscar winner 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.
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.
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 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.
