Jimmy Kimmel returned to air, thanking fans after Disney lifted his show's suspension. Photo / Getty Images
Jimmy Kimmel has made his much-anticipated return to air after Disney reversed its decision to put his show on indefinite hiatus.
The US talk show host, 57, gave his first official statement on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday night (local time), just a week after ABC suspended him over his controversial comments about slain right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.
In his 18-minute opening monologue, Kimmel surprised viewers by becoming fairly emotional, saying he didn’t intend to poke fun at Kirk’s assassination.
He also revealed he’d reached out to the late 31-year-old’s family.
“You understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” Kimmel said, holding back tears.
“I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.
“[It wasn’t] my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make, but 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.”
Kimmel extended his love to Kirk’s widow Erika as he commended her for forgiving her husband’s alleged killer Tyler Robinson.
“She forgave him,” Kimmel said, his voice breaking.
“That is an example we should follow.
“If you believe in the teachings of Jesus, as I do, there it was. A selfless act of grace. Forgiveness from a grieving widow. It touched me deeply, and I hope it touches many. And if there’s anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that.”
Despite that, Kimmel went on to say he “did not agree” with Disney’s decision to halt production of his show.
“I told them that, and we had many conversations,” he shared.
“I shared my point of view, they shared theirs.
“We talked it through, and in the end, even though they didn’t have to, they really didn’t have to, this is a giant company, we have short attention spans, and I am a tiny part of the Disney Corporation, [but] they welcomed me back on the air, and I thank them for that.”
Above all, Kimmel wanted to thank his fans for the groundswell of support they generated after his suspension – a decision that was widely dubbed an “attack on free speech”.
“You cared enough to do something about it to make your voices heard, so mine could be heard, I’ll never forget it,” he said.
“Most of all, I want to thank the people who don’t support my show and what I believe, but support my right to share those beliefs anyway.”
Naturally, Kimmel set his sights directly on President Donald Trump, who has revelled in the host’s suspension.
Kimmel resurfaced a 2022 clip of Trump proudly declaring, “If we don’t have free speech, then we just don’t have a free country.”
Cut to the host in studio, who said, “I wonder, how did that guy, turn into this guy ... ” – segueing into a more recent clip of Trump delighting in Kimmel’s career setback, calling the TV host “talentless” and declaring he gets “no ratings”.
The camera then went back to Kimmel, who gleefully said, “I do tonight”, which was met with raucous applause from the live audience.
“You almost have to feel sorry for him, he tried his best to cancel me, instead, he forced millions to watch the show. That backfired. He might have to release the [Jeffrey] Epstein files to distract us from this now,” Kimmel added.
On a serious note, the TV personality condemned Trump’s bid to silence those who criticise him.
“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,” Kimmel continued.
“He was able to squeeze [Stephen] Colbert out of CBS, then he turned his sights on me, and now he’s openly rooting for NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers and the hundreds of Americans who work for their shows who don’t make millions of dollars.
“And I hope that if that happens, or if there’s even any hint of that happening, you will be 10 times as loud as you were this week.”
Before the episode’s airing, Trump had taken to Truth Social to blast Kimmel and ABC for allowing the show to broadcast.
He labelled Kimmel “someone who does so poorly, who’s not funny and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE”.
“The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there,” he wrote.
Trump went on to allege Kimmel was “yet another arm of the DNC [Democratic National Convention]”, arguing if that were the case, it would be “a major Illegal Campaign Contribution”.
“I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars,” he wrote.
Elsewhere, Kimmel made light of his sensational suspension, which made headlines around the world.
“If you’re just joining us, we are pre-empting your regularly scheduled encore episode of Celebrity Family Feud to bring you this special report,” Kimmel said jokingly, referencing his show being briefly dumped in favour of other programmes.
“I’m not sure who had a weirder 48 hours, me or the CEO of Tylenol. It’s been overwhelming.
“I’ve heard from a lot of people over the last six days. I’ve heard from all the people all over the world. Weird characters from my past. The guy who fired me from my first radio job in Seattle, where we are not airing tonight, by the way, sorry Seattle.”
Indeed, while production on the show is back, hundreds of US viewers haven’t been able to watch it as several networks opted to ban the episode, with the programme still canned on more than 70 ABC affiliate networks.
The Walt Disney Company, which owns the ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live! is broadcast on, released a statement a day prior to Kimmel’s swift comeback, confirming the show would resume after “thoughtful conversations” with the host.
“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,” Disney 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.”
The backflip came after mounting calls for a boycott of Disney, with high-profile actors including Cynthia Nixon and Noah Centineo among those who publicly cancelled their Disney+ subscriptions.
More than 400 Hollywood stars, including Jennifer Aniston, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro and Selena Gomez, had also signed a petition supporting Kimmel and defending “free speech”.
The saga kicked off when Kimmel peddled a conspiracy Kirk’s alleged assassin Tyler Robinson was part of the “Maga gang” during his opening monologue last Monday.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the Maga gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.
Executives acted fast, with Disney pulling production to avoid “escalating tensions during 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,” a statement continued.
Elsewhere, president of global broadcast media company Nexstar, Andrew Alford, labelled the comments “offensive and insensitive”.
Nexstar, which owns America’s largest local television broadcasting group, swiftly replaced the late-night show in its ABC-affiliated markets.
“Continuing to give Mr Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time,” Alford said.
“We have made the difficult decision to pre-empt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”
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