Arts & Entertainment
Free Speech Advocates React to Jimmy Kimmel’s Suspension; Comic to Return to Air Tuesday
Video: Joining “Chicago Tonight” are Laura Beth Nielsen, a law and sociology professor with Northwestern University; Ari Cohn, lead counsel for tech policy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression; and Chicago-based comedian Pat McGann. (Produced by Bridgette Adu-Wadier)
NEW YORK (AP) — ABC will reinstate Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show in the wake of criticism over his comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, officials with the network said Monday.
"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,” said a statement from the network.
ABC suspended Kimmel indefinitely after comments he made about Kirk, who was killed Sept. 10, in a monologue. Kimmel said “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk” and that “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
Kimmel has hosted “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC since 2003 and has been a fixture in television and comedy for even longer. He is also well known as a presenter, having hosted the Academy Awards four times.
Backlash to Kimmel’s comments about Kirk was swift. Nexstar and Sinclair, two of ABC’s largest affiliate owners, said they would be pulling “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from their stations. Others, including several fellow comedians, came to his defense.
“It seems to speak to a trend that we saw with Colbert and on the heels of this — it sounded like they were going to do more,” Chicago-based comedian Pat McGann said. “... Comedy seems to be a place where we talk about the truths and is a place where we tackle hard issues. When they’re starting to silence comics, that’s a cause for concern.”
President Donald Trump, one of Kimmel’s frequent targets, posted on social media that Kimmel’s suspension was “great news for America.” He also called for other late night hosts to be fired.
Kimmel was asked in an interview with Variety this past summer if he was worried that the administration would come after comedians. He expressed concern that a crackdown could be on the way.
“Well, you’d have to be naive not to worry a little bit,” he said. “But that can’t change what you’re doing.”
Kimmel’s suspension arrived in a time when Trump and his administration have pursued threats, lawsuits and federal government pressure to try to exert more control over the media industry. Trump has reached settlements with ABC and CBS over their coverage.
Trump has also filed defamation lawsuits against The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Republicans in Congress stripped federal funding from NPR and PBS.
“We tend to recognize as a society and get upset about speech when it troubles the most privileged people in society,” Northwestern University law professor Laura Beth Nielsen said. “Right now, the people who are being critiqued are the people who hold the White House, the Congress, the Supreme Court, most of the wealth in this country. When they’re attacked, it’s a big problem.”
Brendan Carr, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, issued a warning prior to Kimmel’s suspension that criticized Kimmel’s remarks about the Kirk assassination.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Ari Cohn, lead tech policy counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said the FCC’s threats to ABC were an unprecedented act of censorship.
“It is a very difficult thing to say that the speech that I find detestable and odious is the speech we need protection for the most,” Cohn said. “It’s counterintuitive to human nature, but it’s incredibly important to keep us from developing into a state of unfreedom — it’s probably the least of the bad things. It’s what leads to authoritarianism, oppression and tyranny.”
The suspension also happened at a time when the late night landscape is shifting. CBS announced the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show over the summer
Kimmel’s contract with The Walt Disney Co.-owned network had been set to expire in May 2026.
Word of the reinstatement came as hundreds of Hollywood and Broadway stars — including Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Selena Gomez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep — urged Americans “fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights” in the wake of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension.
More than 430 movie, TV and stage stars as well as comedians, directors and writers added their names to an open letter Monday from the American Civil Liberties Union that argues it is “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation.”
Also Monday, ABC’s “The View” weighed in on the controversy after not raising it for two episodes after Kimmel was suspended. Co-host Whoopi Goldberg opened the show saying: “No one silences us” and she and her fellow hosts condemned Disney’s decision.
Bridgette Adu-Wadier contributed to this report.
