Tomorrow, Jimmy Kimmel will return to host his late-night show after it was “indefinitely” put on hold on September 17 by Disney following remarks he made about Charlie Kirk in the wake of the conservative commentator’s assassination earlier this month. The decision prompted a large amount of backlash from fans, actors, and comedians, and led to calls for a Disney boycott.
On September 22, Disney and ABC confirmed via a statement shared with the press that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to the air following a near-weeklong hiatus that came after the comedian spoke about Kirk’s assassination and his thoughts on how some Republican politicians, including President Trump, and other conservative commentators acted in the days that followed the shooting.
“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,” said Disney and ABC in a statement. “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.”
Since last week, Marvel and Star Wars actors like Pedro Pascal and Mark Hamill have spoken out publicly against Disney and ABC’s decision to suspend production on Kimmel’s popular late-night talk show after he joked that many members of the “MAGA gang” hit a new “low” after many of them tried to “score political points” from Kirk’s assassination. He also directly called out Trump’s awkward and cold reaction to Kirk’s death when responding to reporters’ questions about how he was holding up. At no point, as documented extensively, did Kimmel joke about Kirk’s death. Yet that didn’t matter. FCC Chairman and Trump loyalist Brendan Carr threatened to investigate ABC and pull its broadcast licenses over Kimmel’s comments. So Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Dana Walden and CEO Bob Iger capitulated instantly and shut the show down.
“Giving a bully your lunch money is only a temporary down payment for future bullying,” said Hamill. “We ALL need to step up for the First Amendment. By-the-way, for the record, this ex-Disney employee finds Jimmy Kimmel very talented and funny.”
Even former Disney CEO Michael Eisner condemned Iger and Disney’s handling of the Kimmel situation, posting on Twitter: “The ‘suspending indefinitely’ of Jimmy Kimmel immediately after the Chairman of the FCC’s aggressive yet hollow threatening of the Disney Company is yet another example of out-of-control intimidation.”
Meanwhile, thousands of people shared screenshots of them canceling their Disney+ subscriptions and threatening to boycott future Marvel and Star Wars movies and shows. In response, Disney seemingly tried to use a trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu to distract people and change the online conversation. But that didn’t seem to work. Now, after all that, Disney has reversed course and is, for the time being, not letting Carr and Trump push them around. We’ll see how long that lasts and if Kimmel is forced to apologize on air or not when his show return’s Tuesday night on ABC.
