• by Wayne Friedman , September 19, 2025

In the wake of the decision by Disney-ABC Television to take longtime ABC late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” off the air, a petition and boycott against the big legacy TV-network company have taken root.

There have been 51,520 verified signatures for a petition asking people to “boycott ABC until they restore the ‘Jimmy Kimmel Show’ and defend free speech," according to Change.org.

On the organization website, Mike Bomeyer, a petition starter, writes: “Defend freedom of speech. Let corporate giants like ABC know we will not tolerate catering to the Trump administration's bullying, fascism, and attacks on free speech by boycotting ABC and its advertisers until Kimmel is restored to the airwaves.”

Separately, Google Trends has shown that over the two-day Wednesday-Thursday period, “Cancel Disney+” searches on Google have spiked.

On Wednesday, news broke that “Jimmy Kimmel Live” had been indefinitely suspended by Disney-ABC, after remarks Kimmel made during his Monday monologue with regard to the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

This came after two major U.S. TV station owners -- Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Inc -- which together have more than 60 ABC affiliates -- both said they would indefinitely preempt the show because of Kimmel's remarks.

Sinclair further demanded an apology, as well as a donation by Kimmel to the Kirk family and to the Kirk Turning Point USA group.

An update on the petition to save CBS’ "Late Show with Stephen Colbert," by the same Change.org group, indicates that it is now at 61,103 verified signatures.

The petition started up July after CBS announced that the "Late Show with Stephen Colbert' would be cancelled due to “financial” reasons.

This came just a few days after Colbert in his monologue joked about a $16 million settlement his network's parent company, Paramount Global, had paid to Donald Trump. The lawsuit stemmed from a 2025 “60 Minutes” interview with then-Presidential candidate Kamala Harris.