After being suspended last week, Jimmy Kimmel‘s late-night show is now set to return to ABC. Disney, which owns the network, issued a statement clarifying the latest development on Monday (US time).
“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,” Disney stated after hundreds of Hollywood stars signed an open letter condemning the brand’s suspension of the late-night show. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.”
The owner of multiple ABC affiliate stations Sinclair Broadcast Group, on the other hand, has chosen to proceed otherwise. On Monday, it confirmed that it would not be airing Kimmel’s show despite Disney’s decision to bring it back.
“Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming,” read the company’s statement on X. “Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”
Will Jimmy Kimmel apologise for his Charlie Kirk comments?
In the meantime, a new report suggested that the late-night show host may not apologise for insinuating last week that the late right-wing activist‘s alleged assassin was a member of the “MAGA gang.” Sources privy to the deal negotiations shared with the New York Post this week that Jimmy directly discussed the issue with Walt Disney Co CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment’s co-chair Dana Walden.
As per the latest claims related to the matter, Jimmy Kimmel’s Tuesday episode may go on to address the emerging controversy. However, the media personality may hold back on any apologies despite Sinclair’s public demand for the same. The owner of a dozen of ABC affiliates also declared that they would donating to the Charlie Kirk-founded group Turning Point USA.
Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC connection
Kimmel reportedly earns somewhere between $15-$16 million per year, with total compensation including bonuses crossing the $20 million-mark. His pre-existing ABC contract will get him through May 2026, thanks to the multi-year extension he signed in 2022.
The same day as the confirmation of Kimmel’s return made headlines, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr dismissed allegations that the Donald Trump administration forced Disney to push the show host off-track. While at a forum in New York, Carr pushed that Jimmy’s suspension had been influenced by “his ratings, not because of anything that’s happened at the federal government level.”
In a separate report, The Post cited people inside Disney claiming that Kimmel’s late-night title was losing over $20 million a year because of the supposedly plummeting ratings. And yet, a person who reportedly knows about the deal struck between the host and other executives said, “Jimmy makes money which makes this a difficult decision despite what he said.”
In addition to netizens sounding off alarms of potential Disney boycotts, about 400 Hollywood celebrities, including Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Stiller, Michael Keaton, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Natalie Portman, signed the open letter backed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Voicing their concerns about the “strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country,” the letter speaks out against the “silencing of Jimmy Kimmel.”