Jimmy Kimmel returned as host of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ on Tuesday, September 23, after making inappropriate comments about the Conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s murder.
The comments that led to his suspension were not directly aimed at Kirk, the comments were targeted at President Trump and his “MAGA Gangs” response. On Tuesday “For 16 minutes, Kimmel mixed humor, pointed messages and emotion to talk about his suspension, the support he’s received and praised Kirk’s widow,” (AP News, Sept 24). Kimmel also spoke on free speech and expressing grief over Kirk’s death.
On September 22nd the Walt Disney Corporation, which owns ABC, explained that they made the decision to suspend Kimmel’s show to “avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country” (Phillips, Sept 24). The Corporation also stated that they felt the comments were ill-timed and insensitive. Disney said that after multiple thoughtful conversations with Kimmel, they decided to bring the show back.
Nexstar, a broadcasting corporation with over 200 channels, has said that they will not be airing Jimmy Kimmel Live. Cities like Youngstown, Ohio and multiple cities in New York have channels owned by Nexstar and will therefore be unable to watch Kimmel’s Late Night show.
Before ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live, Brendan Carr, an FCC Chairman, called Kimmel’s comment “truly sick” as well as accusing him of appearing to “directly mislead the American public” with his comments about Tyler Robinson (Phillips, Sept 24).
On Tuesday when the show returned it gained over 6.26 million views. This is, acording to CNBC, “despite significant preemptions across 23% of U.S. TV households, according to data from Nielsen shared by Disney” (Whitten, Sept 24).
