Less than one week after Jimmy Kimmel was suspended from ABC due to comments he made about Charlie Kirk, the late-night host is returning to airwaves. Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return with new episodes on Tuesday, September 23.
“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 Walt Disney Company, ABC’s parent company, 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.”
Kimmel’s suspension came on September 17 after threats from FCC chair Brendan Carr, which led to Nexstar, an affiliate network with dozens of local ABC channels, announcing that it would be preempting episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! due to comments he made about Kirk’s murder.
The comments in question were made during Kimmel’s September 16 show. “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,” he said.
As Carr explained on a podcast, “[It] appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into the narrative that this [shooter] was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person. What people don’t understand is that the broadcasters … have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest. When we see stuff like this, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
The decision to suspend Kimmel sparked major backlash, with celebrities, politicians, talk show hosts, and more weighing in about how the move supported censorship and a violation of the First Amendment.
This story is developing, more to come …