Disney CEO Bob Iger, Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden and Kimmel were in talks 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.
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Kimmel is expected to address the issue when his show returns on Tuesday, according to the sources. A spokeswoman for Kimmel could not immediately be reached for comment.
Also left unclear was whether ABC’s two biggest affiliate television groups, Nextstar, and Sinclair, would eventually agree to resume carrying the show once it returned to the network. There was no immediate comment from Nextstar, which needs FCC approval for a $US6.2 billion ($9.4 billion) merger with Tegna. Sinclair said it would continue pre-empting Kimmel’s time slot with news programming while conducting talks with ABC “as we evaluate the show’s potential return”.
Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for Turning Point USA, the organisation founded by Kirk and now headed by his wife, posted on X about Kimmel’s reinstatement: “Disney and ABC caving and allowing Kimmel back on the air is not surprising, but it’s their mistake to make. Nexstar and Sinclair do not have to make the same choice.”
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.
Trump had 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 northern 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 at 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.
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Trump has reached settlements with ABC and CBS over their coverage, and has filed defamation lawsuits against The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Republicans in Congress stripped federal funding from NPR and PBS.
The FCC’s Carr issued a warning prior to Kimmel’s suspension that criticised the TV host’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.”
The suspension also happened at a time when the late-night landscape is shifting. CBS recently announced the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show. Kimmel’s contract with The Walt Disney-owned network had been set to expire in May 2026.
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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 to “fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights” after 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 from the American Civil Liberties Union that argues it is “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation”.
The ABC’s The View also weighed in on the controversy after not raising the topic 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.
