Jimmy Kimmel returned to ABC on Tuesday night, less than a week after Jimmy Kimmel Live! was abruptly suspended over on-air comments he made about the political response to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel addressed the backlash to his remarks at the top of his opening monologue. “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it,” Kimmel said, his voice breaking with emotion. “I understand that to some, that felt either ill-timed or unclear, or maybe both — and for those who think I did point a finger, I get why you’re upset. If the situation was reversed, there’s a good chance I’d have felt the same way.”
After thanking his fellow late-night hosts for rallying around him, Kimmel said he felt even more grateful for “the people who don’t support my show and what I believe but support my right to share those beliefs anyway.”
“People I never would have imagined, like Ben Shapiro, Clay Travis, Candace Owens, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul — even my old pal Ted Cruz,” Kimmel said. “It takes courage for them to speak out against this administration. They did and they deserve credit for it.”
Ultimately, Kimmel continued, “this show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
To that end, Kimmel criticized President Trump and his administration for threatening to “silence a comedian the government doesn’t like,” calling such actions “anti-American.”
“Our government cannot be allowed to control what we do and do not say on television,” Kimmel said. “The president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke.”
Posting to his Truth Social network shortly before Kimmel’s return, Trump called ABC “a true bunch of losers” for reviving Jimmy Kimmel Live! — then threatened to “test ABC out on this” with another lawsuit. (Trump previously sued ABC and anchor George Stephanopoulos for defamation over an inaccurate comment — a suit that ABC settled in December).
“[Kimmel] is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution,” Trump wrote, without providing any evidence. “Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative.”
ABC announced last Wednesday that its popular late-night show would be suspended “indefinitely” in response to Kimmel’s remarks.
“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 Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, said in a statement on Monday. “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.”
Prior to Tuesday night, Kimmel did not comment publicly on the controversy. His on-air sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez, posted a celebratory message on Instagram after the show’s return was announced. “We are back full of love,” he wrote.
During his monologue on Sept. 15, Kimmel said that Trump’s supporters were trying to “score political points” by portraying Kirk’s accused killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, as a left-wing radical while “desperately trying to characterize [Robinson] as anything other than one of them.”
His comments prompted Nexstar, which owns hundreds of TV stations across the country, to say it would preempt Kimmel’s show on all of its affiliates. Disney responded by pausing production on the show. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, had threatened to “take action” against Kimmel for his comments earlier that day.
“Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said during a conversation with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.
More than 400 Hollywood stars signed a letter published Monday that condemned the “threats to our freedom of speech” they believe Kimmel’s suspension represents.
“Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country,” the letter said. “We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power — because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.”
Other late-night hosts also stood behind Kimmel.
“This is a big moment in our democracy, and we must all stand up for the principles of free expression,” Seth Meyers, host of NBC’s Late Night, said last week. “There’s a reason free speech is in the very first amendment. It stands above all others.”
Even some of Trump’s most dedicated political allies expressed concerns about the implications of pulling someone off the air over their political comments.
“I think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying we’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off air if we don’t like what you’re saying,” Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said on his podcast on Friday.
The Trump administration has pushed back on the implication that Kimmel’s suspension represents government censorship.
“This is about Nexstar and Sinclair vs. Disney, and that’s ultimately a business decision,” Carr told conservative radio host Dana Loesch last week.
Trump, who praised ABC for its “courage” when news of the suspension broke, argued that the decision had to do with Kimmel’s talent and popularity, not the government’s intervention.
“He had very bad ratings and they should have fired him a long time ago,” Trump said, referring to the suspension, during a trip to the United Kingdom last week. “So, you know, you can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”
ABC’s decision to end Kimmel’s suspension does not necessarily mean the show will be available in all markets. Sinclair Inc., the largest owner of ABC affiliates in the country, announced on Monday that it will not be airing the show on any of its 185 stations.
“Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return,” the company said in a statement.
Nexstar said on Tuesday morning it would also preempt Kimmel’s show.
“Disney and ABC caving and allowing [Kimmel] back on the air is not surprising, but it’s their mistake to make,” Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for Turning Point USA, wrote on social media. “[Nexstar] and Sinclair do not have to make the same choice.”
In a statement, Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat in the FCC’s leadership, made the case that the battle over freedom of expression isn’t over, regardless of what happens with Kimmel’s show.
“It will continue to be up to us as citizens to push back against this Administration’s growing campaign of censorship and control,” she wrote.
