Jimmy Kimmel confirmed to return to ABC this week after suspension lifted
Jimmy Kimmel is set to make his return on Jimmy Kimmel Live on September 23rd, following his short-lived suspension by ABC.
Kimmel had been suspended on September 17th, following what ABC executives construed as insensitive comments aimed at President Donald Trump as well as the late political activist Charlie Kirk, who was murdered on September 10th at Utah Valley University.
Hours before the suspension, the Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, piled on pressure by labelling comments made by Kimmel about Trump grieving Kirk in the same way “a four-year-old mourns a goldfish” as “sick” and also claimed he “directly mislead the American public”.
Additionally, the Sinclair Group, the largest ABC affiliate, and Nexstar, which also owns many ABC stations, said it would not air Jimmy Kimmel Live for the foreseeable future due to his comments.
Now, in a statement, the Walt Disney Company, the parent company of ABC, confirmed it would be allowing Kimmel to return on September 23rd. They shared, “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 also went on to explain their reasoning behind wanting to suspend Kimmel’s show, saying, “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.”
This comes after a major outcry from major public figures rallying against ABC and Disney for their actions. Despite Trump making various comments about Kimmel’s lack of popularity and ratings, Barack Obama came out of the woodwork to defend the host, calling the decision a case of taking “cancel culture to a new and dangerous level.”
Many of Kimmel’s fellow hosts have also come to his defence. David Letterman went on to call the Trump administration “criminal” for supporting this infringement of free speech, while Howard Stern announced that he would be cancelling his subscription to Disney+ due to the decision.
While other late show hosts such as Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart stood in support of Kimmel, ABC was also facing backlash from Hollywood. 400 members of the acting community signed an open letter supporting free speech on September 21st, including A-listers such as Jennifer Aniston, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, and Mark Ruffalo.
The letter stated that the suspension infringed upon Kimmel’s right to free speech, saying, “This is the moment to defend free speech across our nation. We encourage all Americans to join us, along with the ACLU, in the fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights.”
