Jimmy Kimmel will have more to say on late-night TV.
Disney and ABC will bring the comedian back to its schedule starting Tuesday night. “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,” the company said in a statement. “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.”
Disney’s decision to bench one of its signature personalities came after two major station owners, Nexstar Media and Sinclair, said they would pre-empt his program following a Kimmel monologue last Monday during which he offered remarks tied to the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Those announcements came after Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr appeared to suggest to broadcasters they ought to work to curb Kimmel and force ABC to remove him from its schedule.
And yet, after Kimmel was taken off the air, Disney faced protest from the creative community. On Monday, 400 celebrities — including people like Martin Short and Tom Hanks, who have created memorable characters for Disney in the recent past — signed a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union decrying the blow the maneuver delivered to free speech in America.
The decision to bring Kimmel back was approved by Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, and Dana Walden, co-chair of Disney Entertainment, according to a person familiar with the matter. The executives acted based on what was best for the company, this person said, and not on external factors. Indeed, it remains unclear if all ABC affiliates will air Kimmel’s program. Spokespersons for Nexstar and Sinclair could not be reached for immediate comment.
It is not clear if Kimmel will offer an apology for his remarks, but whatever he and Disney executives agreed to have him do will be seen Tuesday night. In the past, late-night hosts have had to tender apologies for remarks that offended, with David Letterman, Bill Maher and Samantha Bee among those who had to express regret for jokes or one-liners that caused more outrage than laughter.
The comedian offended conservatives by discussing some of the theories about Kirk’s death, caused by an assassin who shot him in Utah. “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,” Kimmel said. He also poked fun at President Trump’s response to a question from the press about how he was mourning Kirk’s death after Trump pivoted to a discussion of the construction of a new White House ballroom.
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Disney’s decision to take Kimmel off the air put a new spotlight on how uncertain traditional media companies have become in an era when the White House and the Federal Communications Commission pounce on individual reports with comments and legal pushback. President Trump has in recent months sued both ABC News and CBS News for comments made by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos and the editing of an interview with former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes.” In both cases, the companies agreed to pay multi-million dollar settlements, even though the legal cases were deemed to be quite flimsy by experts.
In a different era, late-night hosts were more measured in their commentary. Johnny Carson famously kept his politics to himself, while poking fun at whoever happened to be in the White House. In recent years, however, hot talk and political humor have driven social-media chatter and viral pass-along — and ratings. Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” on CBS has been the most watched of TV’s late-night programs as the host followed a theme of commenting on the latest headlines. For a good part of Colbert’s tenure on TV, President Trump has been at the center of them.
Such dynamics may be poised to cease. Paramount is getting out of the late-night business, and has canceled Colbert’s “Late Show,” which will end in May. While the company cited a downturn in advertising, there continue to be suspicions that Paramount Skydance’s new leader, David Ellison, wants to tamp down political sniping and is eager to cater to a more conservative base.
More to come…
From Variety US