“Jimmy Kimmel Live” is returning to its
regularly scheduled late-night time slot on Tuesday, September 23 -- after a week-long suspension by Disney-ABC following comments in Kimmel’s monologue concerning the death of conservative
political activist Charlie Kirk.
A Disney-ABC representative said in a statement: “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
Disney-ABC representative added. “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.”
In his remarks during a monologue last week, Kimmel said: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid
who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and with everything they can to score political points from it.” These remarks were made on Monday's telecast of the show while
the investigation into Kirk's death was continuing.
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In response, Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, publicly threatened to take action against ABC, in
terms of broadcast licenses. This sparked other actions -- two major independent TV station groups -- which have ABC TV affiliate stations -- said they would suspend “Jimmy Kimmel
Live.”
Critics on both sides of the argument exploded -- including live onsite protests and boycotts of Walt Disney streaming products (Disney+, for example) following the
decision to suspend Kimmel's show.