Jimmy Kimmel returned with his late show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, on Tuesday, Sept. 23 after being indefinitely pulled off the air by ABC due to comments that he made on political commentator Charlie Kirk’s killer. Kimmel’s suspension came after the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made comments condemning Kimmel’s monologue on a right-leaning podcast hosted by Benny Johnson.
During his show on Sept. 15, Kimmel said in a monologue about Kirk’s killer: “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.”
Many took issue with Kimmel’s monologue, including Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the FCC. On Sept. 17, Carr said on Johnson’s podcast that Kimmel’s speech was “the sickest conduct possible.” He said that companies should change conduct and take action on Kimmel and that “we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
The New York Times reported that before Kimmel’s Wednesday show, executives at ABC and Disney, who own ABC, reviewed remarks that Kimmel had prepared. They decided that the planned monologue would only make the situation worse, and decided to indefinitely pull Kimmel’s show. Sources that were involved in the deliberation over Kimmel’s suspension stated that there were hopes for the host to return soon. This occurred hours after Carr appeared on Johnson’s podcast.
After news broke about Kimmel’s suspension, many came out to support him, including several fellow late night hosts. According to BBC, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and Jimmy Fallon all made comments in support of Kimmel, with Stewart and Fallon satirizing the situation. On the “Daily Show”, Stewart ironically fawned over Trump and created an “all-new government approved Daily Show.” On Fallon’s late night show, the host was cut off by a voiceover that stated that Trump “looked incredibly handsome” during his trip to the UK.
Many celebrities also came out in support of Jimmy Kimmel and free speech. According to The Hollywood Reporter, hundreds of celebrities signed an open letter condemning the suspension of Kimmel. Some of the signees include Ben Stiller, Olivia Rodrigo, Tom Hanks and Pedro Pascal. The letter states that actions like Kimmel’s suspension that aim to suppress speech “strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country.”
Disney also lost many subscribers to Disney+, their streaming service, after Kimmel’s suspension. According to Al Jazeera, Disney lost around $5bn in stock market value, likely due to the boycott in support of Kimmel.
Finally, Kimmel returned to television on Tuesday, Sept. 23. He had Glen Powell, the lead in an upcoming series called “Chad Powers” as a guest as well as Sarah McLachlan as the musical guest. According to USA Today, McLachlan cancelled a scheduled performance that would be premiered on Disney+ and Hulu in a show of support for Kimmel.
Despite Jimmy Kimmel coming back to television, many were not able to watch due to two companies that control a large portion of ABC’s broadcast.
ABC broadcasts their programs, including Kimmel’s late night show, through affiliate stations. These are local stations that agree to broadcast programs from larger organizations.
Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group own many of the stations affiliated with ABC. According to the New York Times, they both pulled Kimmel’s show on Wednesday shortly after Carr’s comments about Kimmel. Nexstar has stated that it “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel,” as well as that they had not consulted with the FCC before making their decision.
Even after ABC decided to begin broadcasting the show again, Nexstar and Sinclair both held to their decision to not air Kimmel’s show. According to NBC, Nexstar and Sinclair own over 50 ABC affiliated stations, which means that tens of millions of people were not able to watch Kimmel’s show. However, according to ABC News, both Nexstar and Sinclair decided to resume broadcasting Kimmel’s show on Friday, Sept. 26.
According to the New York Times, Nexstar is in the process of closing a merger with Tegna, another broadcast company. This merger is worth $6.2 billion and will give Nexstar a reach of 265 stations in 44 states. This merger requires the approval of the FCC, and, according to NBC, Sinclair is also exploring mergers as well, which would also require the approval of the FCC.
The Captain’s Log spoke to a few students about their thoughts on Kimmel’s suspension and his return on Tuesday.
Sophomore Soham Joshi expressed his concern about first amendment violations in Kimmel’s suspension. Joshi said that “kicking Jimmy Kimmel out would be violating freedom of press and speech.”
Senior Katie Watson viewed Kimmel being pulled as unfair. “A lot of people make jokes all the time,” Watson said. She also said that she is glad Kimmel got his spot back on the air.
Senior Will Hadd viewed the whole situation as being about business, stating that politics had nothing to do with it. He said that ABC suspended Kimmel due to “them being worried about him getting too political,” and that he was brought back when ABC realized how popular his show was.
