Last week, ABC made the abrupt and shocking decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely due to pressure from the Trump administration. Members of the administration—namely President Donald J. Trump and Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)—were unhappy with remarks that host Jimmy Kimmel made about the man alleged to have shot and killed the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Now, after significant backlash to ABC’s decision, Jimmy Kimmel Live! is returning on Tuesday night, September 20, according to The New York Times.
In a statement reported by The Times and other outlets, Walt Disney Company, ABC’s parent company, said, “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 statement continued, “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.”
Kimmel’s show was suspended after the host said the following about the 22-year-old man accused of killing Charlie Kirk in Utah: “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 with everything they can to score political points from it.”
Brendan Carr, in response, said during an appearance on a right-wing podcast that Kimmel’s remarks were part of a “concerted effort to lie to the American people.” ABC soon suspended the show under pressure from Carr and the FCC.
The suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! was met with protests and also condemnation from the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), and the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), as well as political figures, such as Senator Chuck Schumer and former President Barack Obama, and entertainers like Ben Stiller, Wanda Sykes, and Jean Smart.