Disney announced Monday that it’s bringing “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” back on the air Tuesday, less than a week after the company said it was suspending ABC’s late night program “indefinitely” following the host’s remarks about Charlie Kirk’s killing.
The decision followed “thoughtful conversations” with the host, whose show was taken down after Kimmel criticized conservatives’ response to Kirk’s shooting death, Disney said, adding that the company believed the timing of the remarks to be “insensitive.”
“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 company statement read. “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.”
Critics slammed Disney and its CEO Bob Iger for suspending the show after Brendan Carr, President Donald Trump’s chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, threatened to punish the company with regulatory action over Kimmel’s comments.
Earlier Monday, more than 400 celebrities, including Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, signed a letter calling the suspension a “dark moment for freedom of speech.” A handful of other celebrities have called on people to cancel their subscriptions to Disney’s platforms or vowed not to work with the company again.
