The Walt Disney Company has issued a short statement saying that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will return to its standard late night time slot on ABC on Tuesday Sept. 23 after being “indefinitely” suspended last week by the network.
Last week Kimmel’s comments on the assassination of Charlie Kirk prompted severe criticism from FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who called Kimmel’s comments “sick” and threatened to remove broadcast licenses of affiliates who carried the show. Following Carr's comments, Nexstar and Sinclair ABC affiliates announced they would preempt it. ABC suspended the show soon thereafter.
Like last week’s statement, the Disney statement on resuming production was relatively brief. It did not address specifics about the incident and made no mention of whether all the ABC affiliates will resume airing the show.
“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 said. “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.”
Nexstar has not issued an official statement explaining whether it will air the show when it returns or continue to preempt it.
In response to an inquiry from TV Tech, Sinclair said "beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting `Jimmy Kimmel Live!' across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming. Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return."
When the show was first suspended, Sinclair issued a statement that the FCC and ABC needed to take further action against Kimmel beyond simply suspending the program.
FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez, who had called ABC's decision to suspend the show a “cowardly corporate capitulation” to threats from the FCC, applauded the decision to bring the show back.
“I am glad to see Disney find its courage in the face of clear government intimidation," Gomez said in a statement. "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. As this FCC considers steps that would let the same billion-dollar media conglomerates that caved in to government pressure grow even bigger, we must combat these efforts to stifle free expression."
