Jimmy Kimmel broke his silence after ABC briefly pulledhis hit late night show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, off the air.
“Missing this guy today,” he captioned an Instagram post on Tuesday, September 23, sharing a photo of himself with the late Norman Lear. (Lear, who died in December 2023, was outspoken about his support for the First Amendment.)
Kimmel’s social media post comes shortly before he’s set to make his TV return. ABC announced on Wednesday, September 17, that Kimmel’s late night should would “be pre-empted indefinitely” following the host’s controversial remarks about the death of Charlie Kirk.
Varietyreported earlier that day that ABC decided to remove Jimmy Kimmel Live! from its network after Nexstar Media reportedly threatened to erase the show from its lineup.
Jimmy Kimmel admitted he has been “dodging the question” about his future on late night TV. While speaking to reporters at the 2025 Creative Arts Emmys on Sunday, September 7, Kimmel, 57, revealed he doesn’t know how long he will keep hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC. “I’m not prepared to answer that question, but […]
Nexstar told Variety on Wednesday that its “owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network will preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future, beginning with tonight’s show.” (Us reached out to ABC and representatives for comment at the time.)
The FCC chair also criticized Kimmel’s comments about Kirk, who was shot and killed while speaking at a Utah university earlier this month.
“The MAGA Gang [is] 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,” Kimmel said during the September 15 episode of his show, referring to Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old accused of killing Kirk.
After Kimmel’s comments, Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, threatened ABC, Disney and Kimmel in response to the host’s monologue while appearing on a far-right podcast.
“There’s calls for Kimmely to be fired,” Carr said on Wednesday while appearing on Benny Johnson’s YouTube show. “I think you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this.”
He then commented, “Frankly, when we see stuff like this, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Hollywood rallied around Kimmel following the drama. On Monday, September 22, the ACLU released an open letter with 400 A-List stars showing their support for Kimmel and his show. Meryl Streep, Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston and more were amongst the list of signatures.
The late night talk show community is sticking together, with Stephen Colbert publicly expressing support for Jimmy Kimmel after his show Jimmy Kimmel Live! was pulled off the air. “I’m your host, Stephen Colbert,” the comedian, 61, began during the Thursday, September 18, episode ofThe Late Show. “But tonight, we are all Jimmy Kimmel.” Colbert […]
Hours after news broke of the letter, ABC announced that Kimmel would be returning to TV.
“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,” the Walt Disney Company 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 suspension of Kimmel’s show came in the wake of the end of his fellow late night host Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show.
“Before we start the show I want to let you know something that I found out just last night,” host Colbert, 61, shared with his fans on the July 17 episode taping of his show and via Instagram. “Next year will be our last season, the network [CBS] will be ending The Late Show in May.”
Colbert continued at the time, “It’s not just the end of our show but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away. I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners … And I’m grateful to the audience, you, who have joined us every night, in here, out there, and all around the world.”
Jimmy Kimmel was the talk of late night television on Thursday, September 18, despite his own show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, being taken off the air by ABC earlier this week. ABC pulled the talk show from its schedules on Wednesday, September 17, after criticism over Kimmel’s comments about the death of conservative political commentator Charlie […]
Shortly after CBS canceled Colbert’s show, Kimmel responded in support, telling Variety, “These alleged insiders who supposedly analyze the budgets of the shows — I don’t know who they are, but I do know they don’t know what they’re talking about. They seem to only be focused on advertising revenue and have completely forgotten about affiliate fees, which number in the hundreds of millions — probably in total billions — and you must allocate a certain percentage of those fees to late night shows.”
In the wake of CBS’ cancellation of The Late Show, President Donald Trump responded by slamming both Colbert while appearing to set his sights on Kimmel.
“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,” Trump wrote via his social media platform, Truth Social, a day after the news broke. “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
