By Zachary Stieber and Jack Phillips
Contributing Writers
Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show is returning to the air this week, the Walt Disney Co. said on Monday.
“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 company said in a statement to news outlets. “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.”
Disney is the parent company of ABC, which said on Wednesday it would stop airing “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” indefinitely in the wake of remarks Kimmel made about the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
“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,” Kimmel said during a recent show.
White House Denies Suspension Due to Admin Pressure
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Kimmel was not suspended due to Trump administration pressure but was suspended after a decision was handed down by ABC.
“The decision … came from executives at ABC,” Leavitt told Fox News’s “Saturday in America” on Saturday.
Kimmel was not fired by ABC, but the broadcasting network told media outlets last week that his show would be suspended indefinitely. The decision came after he made comments that appeared to link suspected Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson to “the MAGA gang” during a monologue last week.
“It was a decision that was made by ABC because Jimmy Kimmel chose to knowingly lie to his audience on his program about the death of a highly respected man when our country is in a state of mourning,” Leavitt told the outlet on Saturday. “That was a decision that he made, and he is now facing a consequence for that decision and for that lie.”
Kimmel’s suspension came after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said in several interviews last week that ABC should take action against the late-night host in response to his comments. In a CNBC interview on Thursday, Carr said that he believes Kimmel was trying to mislead the public with his statements about the suspect of Kirk’s assassination, as prosecutors said that Robinson had left-wing viewpoints.
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Carr has noted that ABC, CBS and NBC are different than other news channels because they broadcast over public airwaves and are subject to more FCC requirements. He has said that channels such as CNN or Fox News don’t have the same requirements.
Another show run by ABC, “The View,” could be in the FCC’s crosshairs soon, Carr also suggested last week.
“I would assume you could make the argument that ‘The View’ is a bona fide news show, but I’m not so sure about that,” Carr told “The Scott Jennings Radio Show” on Thursday.
Responding to Kimmel’s suspension, fellow late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart said it’s evidence that the Trump administration is attempting to censor them.
President Donald Trump told reporters in the UK that Kimmel was suffering from “very bad ratings” and was “fired for a lack of talent” in combination with his comments about the suspected assassin.
While praising ABC’s decision to suspend Kimmel, Trump also called for the ousters of Fallon and Seth Meyers, who both host programs on NBC.
“Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC,” he wrote on Truth Social.
A supporter of Trump, Kirk was killed on Sept. 10 as he was speaking at a college campus in Utah. He was credited with influencing younger people toward conservatism and helping Trump win the presidency in 2024.
