“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will return to air on ABC on Tuesday evening, the community introduced in a press release.
“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,” a spokesperson for the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, stated in a press release to NCS. “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.”
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was abruptly and indefinitely taken off the air final week after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr and networks of affiliate stations owned by Sinclair and Nexstar threatened ABC over feedback Kimmel made in a monologue in regards to the MAGA motion’s response to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
The transfer sparked a nationwide debate about authorities interference and freedom speech between supporters of President Donald Trump’s administration and Kimmel, who’ve been vocally critically of one another over time.
Before information of his pending return on Monday, greater than 400 artists, together with Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and Jennifer Aniston, signed an open letter, organized by the ACLU, in assist of Kimmel.
There have been organized protests in opposition to Disney exterior of the corporate’s places of work in New York and Burbank, California over the previous week, in addition to exterior the theater the place Kimmel’s show is recorded in Hollywood.
Media analysts have watched as Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden have navigated competing pressures. Disney wants authorities approval for pending offers like ESPN’s pact with the NFL, whereas a lot of its station companions are in the identical boat. Additionally, Kimmel’s contract is expiring in May and late-night TV audiences and income have been on decline.
Still, Kimmel’s sudden suspension despatched shock waves by way of the leisure trade, the place the comic and long-time host is well-regarded, each inside and outdoors ABC.
His show employs between 200 and 250 folks.
PEN America, one of many many free expression teams that criticized Disney for seemingly caving to the Trump administration, known as Kimmel’s return “a vindication for free speech.”
The ABC announcement is each “remedying his unjustifiable suspension, and reminding us that when people speak out to hold the powerful to account – it matters,” PEN America interim co-CEO Summer Lopez stated. “We must all channel the same energy to fight the many assaults on free speech underway, including against those with less reach and resources.”
Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet is conserving the strain on ABC affiliate station house owners: “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.”
Kimmel has not but publicly commented on the controversy, however presumably will on his show Tuesday evening.
NCS has reached out to representatives of the late-night host, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar for remark.
Carr didn’t instantly reply to NCS’s request for remark.
Carr’s FCC colleague Anna M. Gomez, the lone Democrat on the fee, stated in a press release, “I am glad to see Disney find its courage in the face of clear government intimidation. More importantly, I want to thank those Americans from across the ideological spectrum who spoke loudly and courageously against this blatant attempt to silence free speech.”
“It will continue to be up to us as citizens to push back against this Administration’s growing campaign of censorship and control,” Gomez stated.
NCS’s David Goldman and Lisa Respers France contributed to this story.