ABC announced Monday that it has lifted its suspension on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and that the late night talk show will return to the airwaves on Tuesday, September 23rd.
“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,“ Disney and ABC said in a statement (per Variety).
“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.”
The late night talk show was suspended on September 17th following blowback Kimmel received for his monologue on his September 15th show where he commented on the possible political allegiances of the alleged assassin of conservative activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk.
In his monologue, Kimmel 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 doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
The political leanings of Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, were murky at the time of Kimmel’s monologue but subsequent reporting, including purported text messages from Robinson, have since shown that Kimmel’s characterization was likely inaccurate.
Kimmel’s monologue sparked the ire of Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr, a Trump Administration appointee who suggested on a podcast that the broadcast licenses of ABC and its affiliates could potentially be revoked over the matter.
Almost immediately after Carr’s remarks both Nexstar and Sinclair – two of the largest owners of ABC affiliate stations in the United States, both of which have respective merger deals in the works that require FCC approval – announced they would pre-empt Kimmel’s program, leading Disney-owned ABC to suspend Kimmel indefinitely.
Kimmel’s suspension drew swift rebukes from Hollywood and politicians of both parties, including Republican senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. Kimmel’s late night colleagues weighed in on his suspension and expressed their support.
Many film and TV talents in front of and behind the camera that have worked with Disney, like Star Wars’ Mark Hamill and She-Hulk’s Tatiana Maslany, either threatened to never work with Disney again or urged their followers to cancel their Disney+, Hulu and ESPN subscriptions for what they deemed ABC cowing to government pressure to stifle citizens’ First Amendment rights.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! isn’t the only TV show that frequently criticizes the Trump Administration to return this week. South Park will also air a new episode this week, although co-creator Matt Stone emphasized that “no one censored us” and they were simply late finishing the episode.
