Disney said on Monday it would return comedian Jimmy Kimmel to late-night television on Tuesday, six days after his show was threatened with a regulatory probe and suspended over comments he made about conservative activist Charlie Kirk‘s assassination.
Disney’s move to restore the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” show to the lineup of its ABC network represented the highest-profile challenge yet from a communications company to an escalating crackdown by US President Donald Trump on his perceived media critics through litigation and warnings of regulatory action.
The U-turn came after several prominent conservatives, including US Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who leads oversight of the Federal Communications Commission, joined Democrats in criticizing the head of the FCC for threatening retaliation against ABC.
Disney also faced pressure from consumers rallying against Kimmel’s suspension by canceling their subscriptions to the Disney+ streaming subscription service.
Kimmel, who has frequently ridiculed Trump on his show, drew outrage from conservatives for saying that Trump’s supporters were desperate to characterize Kirk’s accused assassin “as anything other than one of them” and for trying to “score political points” from his murder.
The comments came in the opening monologue of Kimmel’s Monday night broadcast, five days after Kirk, an influential Trump ally, author and radio-podcast host, was shot dead while speaking on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem.
‘ILL-TIMED’ COMMENTS
In the wake of threats of investigation, fines and broadcast license revocations from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, and a boycott by many of ABC’s affiliate stations, Disney said last Wednesday it was shutting down production of Kimmel’s programme indefinitely.
In announcing Kimmel’s return on Tuesday, Disney said it had initially suspended the show “to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country.”
Disney added that it found Kimmel’s comments about Kirk “were ill-timed and thus insensitive,” but the entertainment giant stopped short of an outright apology.
Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment Co-Chair Dana Walden spoke with Kimmel over the weekend and reached a decision on Monday to return Kimmel to the air, according to two people familiar with the matter. The decision was guided by what was in the entertainment company’s best interest, rather than external pressure from station owners or the FCC, the sources said.
Another source at the company said Disney was feeling pressure from a campaign urging consumers to cancel their Disney+ subscriptions in protest. Google searches for “how to cancel Disney+” spiked to a 12-month high, according to Google Trends.
Kimmel is expected to address the issue when his show returns on Tuesday, according to sources. It was not known whether the late-night host planned to apologise or would be required to restrict or tone down any of his commentary.
A spokeswoman for Kimmel could not immediately be reached for comment.
Also left unclear was whether ABC’s two biggest affiliate television groups, Nextstar Media Group and Sinclair Inc., would eventually agree to resume carrying the show once it returned to the network.
There was no immediate comment from Nextstar, which needs FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger with Tegna. Sinclair said it would continue preempting Kimmel’s time slot on Tuesday with news programming while conducting talks with ABC “as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”
