Jimmy
Kimmel will return to TV after highly criticized suspension
Late-night
host reinstated after brief suspension related to comments on Maga and Charlie
Kirk that Disney called ‘insensitive’
Adrian
Horton
Mon 22
Sep 2025 21.31 BST
Jimmy
Kimmel is headed back to air.
Disney
announced on Monday that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would return to broadcast this
Tuesday, after a brief but highly criticized suspension that sparked a national
debate on free speech and the muzzling tactics of the Trump administration.
Disney
indefinitely suspended Kimmel’s late-night talk show last Wednesday, under
pressure from Donald Trump’s chair of the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) over comments Kimmel made about Maga and the killing of far-right
activist Charlie Kirk.
“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, which owns the ABC television network, said on Monday. “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.”
However,
Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest owner of ABC stations in the US, said it
still would not air the show on its 38 ABC affiliate stations.
Sinclair,
which ran a Kirk tribute in place of Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week and is known
to promote conservative talking points, has previously stated that it will not
allow Kimmel’s show back on its stations – including ABC in the Washington DC
metro area – until he apologized to Kirk’s family, made a “meaningful personal
donation” to them and to Kirk’s right-wing activist group Turning Point USA,
and met with Sinclair representatives
“Beginning
Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC
affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming,” Sinclair said in a
statement Monday. “Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s
potential return.”
The move
comes after an extraordinary week that found late-night television in the
political crosshairs. The tumult began last Monday, when Kimmel said during his
monologue that “the Maga gang [is] 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”.
The quote
went viral – by Wednesday Brendan Carr, the FCC chair, threatened ABC’s
affiliate licenses if Disney did not “take action” against the host. Disney
suspended Kimmel indefinitely after the broadcast groups that own hundreds of
affiliate stations, Nexstar – currently seeking merger approval from the FCC –
and Sinclair, pre-empted the show.
The
suspension drew praise from Trump and Carr, who also threatened that he may be
“looking into” The View, another ABC talk show critical of Trump. But it
sparked condemnation from Hollywood talent, unions, media pundits, other talk
show hosts and even Republican politicians like Ted Cruz, who likened Carr’s
threats to that of a mob boss.
“The
right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other – to disturb, even –
is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people,” the Writers Guild
of America wrote in a blistering statement. “It is not to be denied. Not by
violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate
cowardice.
Earlier
Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released an open letter
condemning Disney’s decision signed by over 400 Hollywood stars including
Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Robert De Niro.
Though
production of Kimmel’s show will resume as usual Tuesday, it remains unclear
how available the broadcast will be. The show will, as ever, be available
online after the ABC broadcast.
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