US comedian Jimmy Kimmel will return to his late-night talk show tonight Tuesday (9/23) after a six-day suspension for making jokes relating to the death of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, Disney announced.
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Disney, which owns the US broadcast network that airs Jimmy Kimmel Live, said on Monday that it suspended the show because it "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," Disney said.
The comic's abrupt suspension came after threats by the federal TV regulator to revoke ABC's broadcast licence, sparking nationwide debates over free speech.
Disney's move to restore the "Jimmy Kimmel Live" show to the lineup of its ABC network represented the highest-profile challenge yet from a communications company to an escalating crackdown by U.S. President Donald Trump on his perceived media critics through litigation and warnings regulatory action.
The U-turn came after several prominent conservatives, including U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who leads oversight of the Federal Communications Commission, joined Democrats in criticizing the head of the FCC for threatening retaliation against ABC.
Disney also faced pressure from consumers rallying against Kimmel's suspension by canceling their subscriptions to the Disney+ streaming subscription service.
Kimmel, who has frequently ridiculed Trump on his show, drew outrage from conservatives for saying that Trump's supporters were desperate to characterize Kirk's accused assassin "as anything other than one of them" and for trying to "score political points" from his murder.
The comments came in the opening monologue of Kimmel's night broadcast, last Monday (9/15), just five days after Charlie Kirk was shot dead while speaking on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem.
In the wake of threats of investigation, fines and broadcast license revocations from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, and a boycott by many of ABC's affiliate stations, Disney said last Wednesday it was shutting down production of Kimmel's program indefinitely.
In announcing Kimmel's return on Tuesday, Disney said it had initially suspended the show "to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country."
Disney added that it found Kimmel's comments about Kirk "were ill-timed and thus insensitive," but the entertainment giant stopped short of an outright apology.
Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment Co-Chair Dana Walden spoke with Kimmel over the weekend and reached a decision on Monday to return Kimmel to the air, according to two people familiar with the matter. The decision was guided by what was in the entertainment company's best interest, rather than external pressure from station owners or the FCC, the sources said.
Sources: Reuters and BBC
