In a statement, Disney said the show was pulled “to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country.”
Jimmy Kimmel is getting back to work.
On Monday, The Walt Disney Company confirmed Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return with a new episode on Tuesday evening, less than one week after he was pulled off the air.
“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 company said in a statement. “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.”
Among the first to react to the show’s return was Ellen DeGeneres, who took to her Instagram page to write, “Cannot wait to hear @JimmyKimmel’s monologue tomorrow.” Alyssa Milano was also quick to post, writing, “Protest matters. Use your voice” — followed by Rosie O’Donnell, who added, “the sun will come out – tomorrow #jimmykimmellive”
California Governor Gavin Newson also celebrated on X, posting, “Thank you to everyone but @BrendanCarrFCC . This is a win for free speech everywhere.” Shortly after that, Maria Shriver also shared her reaction to the same platform, writing, “My, oh my! & So the story continues.”
Piers Morgan, meanwhile, reacted by posting, “So, Kimmel wasn’t cancelled by Trump or the FCC after all – but temporarily suspended by his employer because they thought what he said was ill-timed and insensitive.”
The show was suspended “indefinitely” last week, after Kimmel, in the opening monologue of last Monday’s show, 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 doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
He then shifted his attention to President Donald Trump’s reaction to Kirk’s assassination.
The View Finally Weighs In on Kimmel Suspension: ‘No One Silences Us’
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The decision to pull him off the air came after Kimmel’s comments drew the ire of FCC chairman Brendan Carr, and shortly after Nexstar Media, one of the largest owners of TV stations in the country, announced they would “preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show” on all their “owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network.”
“Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets,” they added.
The FCC chair went on a podcast Wednesday, per The Hollywood Reporter, where he said that affiliates should “push back” on ABC and tell the network, “Listen, we’re not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we’re running the possibility of license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion.”
See how stars on both the right and left have reacted to the suspension — with wildly different perspectives — below. The decision to bring Kimmel back on air comes after over 400 celebrities — including many from Disney and ABC properties — signed a letter in support of the late night host.
