Monday, September 22, 2025
Disney and ABC today released a statement saying that Jimmy Kimmel Live would return to the air tomorrow night. The network had placed the show on indefinite suspension the previous week after host Jimmy Kimmel made comments related to the shooting death of conservative public figure Charlie Kirk. The decision to suspend the show was met with what NBC called a “political firestorm” over the state of free speech in America.
“We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy,” reads the statement, “and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
Andrew Kolvet, a representative of Charlie Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, issued the following response: “Disney and ABC caving and allowing [Kimmel] back on the air is not surprising, but it’s their mistake to make. Nextstar and Sinclair do not have to make the same choice.”
Last week Kimmel expressed on-air sympathy for Kirk’s family but criticized MAGA, a conservative movement that generally supports President Trump, saying, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” This was before the governor of Utah publicly shared information suggesting that the suspected shooter, Tyler Robinson, had “started to lean more left” (liberal).
According to NBC, ABC cancelled Kimmel’s show because Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened to revoke ABC affiliate licenses. Nexstar and Sinclair, which own several ABC affiliate stations, shortly announced they would suspend the show as well. Carr would later claim that Disney made the decision “on its own.”
The cancellation evoked a huge response, including condemnation from former ABC president and current Disney CEO Bob Iger, a denunciation from David Letterman, and a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union signed by more than 400 celebrities, including Tom Hanks, Selena Gomez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Stiller, Jason Bateman, Billy Crystal, Robert De Niro, Jane Fonda, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jennifer Aniston, Joaquin Phoenix, Ben Stiller, and Meryl Streep.
“We the people must never accept government threats to our freedom of speech,” the letter says. “Efforts by leaders to pressure artists, journalists, and companies with retaliation for their speech strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country.”
