JUST IN: Disney Bringing Back Jimmy Kimmel’s Show After Backlash
Screenshot via ABC
The Walt Disney Company is bringing back Jimmy Kimmel’s show, the company announced on Monday after several days of backlash to the show’s suspension.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was indefinitely suspended by ABC after comments Kimmel made about Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old charged with the murder of Turning Point USA founder 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,” said Kimmel.
President Donald Trump and other Republicans lauded the suspension while Kimmel’s supporters denounced it as censorship, since it came in the aftermath of vociferous criticism from the president and comments from his Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr that his agency “can do this the easy way or the hard way” if companies don’t “find ways to change conduct and take action.”
Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner weighed in last Friday, lamenting Kimmel’s suspension as a failure of “leadership” for caving to the “out-of-control intimidation” from Carr. Numerous social media users posted screenshots showing they were cancelling Disney-owned subscription services like Disney+ or Hulu. Hundreds of celebrities signed onto a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union denouncing the suspension, and even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) — no fan of Kimmel — blasted Carr’s rhetoric as “dangerous as hell” for the FCC to be “threatening government power to force him off air.”
According to Disney’s statement, Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return on Tuesday, explaining that the decision to suspend the show was “to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country” over comments that the company felt were “ill-timed and thus insensitive,” but after several days of “thoughtful conversations with Jimmy,” the decision had been made to resume airing the show.
The full statement read:
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.
This is a breaking news story and has been updated.
