This past week, there has been a lot of discussion about Jimmy Kimmel’s (Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Man Show) suspension from the airwaves by ABC. Today, The Hollywood Reporter reports that ABC and its parent company, The Walt Disney Company, announced that the late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live! would return on Tuesday. Kimmel was off the air since Wednesday, September 17, over comments he made in his opening monologue about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, ABC made this statement to the media regarding reinstating Kimmel: “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. 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 Hollywood Reporter notes that behind the scenes, sources claim Kimmel said he was not planning to apologize on the show, but instead defend his comments, which were taken out of context by viewers and supporters of the MAGA movement. Even though Kimmel is scheduled to return to the airwaves on Tuesday, it is unclear whether the show will be available in all households. Sinclair Media Group, which owns the ABC station in Washington, D.C. and surrounding areas, stated that it will not be airing Kimmel’s show until Kimmel has apologized and made a donation to the non-profit organization, Turning Point, that Kirk founded.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, while President Trump praised ABC for suspending the show, many Hollywood unions, celebrities, talk show hosts, and a few Republican senators condemned the suspension, saying that this is one step towards becoming state-run media.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a large vocal critic and opponent of Trump, tweeted, “The @GOP does not believe in free speech. They are censoring you in real time,” via The Hollywood Reporter. And even former President Obama posted message saying, “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t.” Other voices included Mark Ruffalo (Task, I Know This Much to Be True), Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), the women of ABC’s The View, Ben Stiller (Severance, The Night at the Museum), Jamie Lee Curtis (Freakier Friday, Halloween), Jean Smart (Hacks, Watchmen), and many more.