Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show to return after suspension over Charlie Kirk remarks
The Walt Disney Co. said Sept. 22 that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will return to the air Sept. 23, nearly a week after suspending the show over the host’s remarks about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The Walt Disney Co. said Sept. 22 that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will return to the air Sept. 23, nearly a week after suspending the show over the host’s remarks about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
“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. It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive,” Disney — the parent company of ABC — said in a statement. “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.”
During his Sept. 15 show, Kimmel said the country “hit some new lows over the weekend” when the “MAGA gang desperately tried to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” according to The Hill.
He claimed Republicans were trying to score “political points” from Kirk’s death and said President Donald Trump mourned the conservative activist “like a 4-year-old mourns the death of a goldfish.”
The remarks triggered swift backlash. On Sept. 17, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr told conservative podcast host Benny Johnson that regulators might take action against Kimmel, ABC, and Disney for misleading the public about the political beliefs and motivations of Kirk’s suspected assassin.
BREAKING: The FCC Chairman is threatening immediate action against Jimmy Kimmel, ABC, and Disney for deliberately misleading the public by claiming Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a MAGA Conservative.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 17, 2025
Chairman Brendan Carr calls Kimmel’s malicious lies are “truly sick” and says they… pic.twitter.com/mGhtGMPReI
"The FCC could make a strong argument that this is sort of an intentional effort to mislead the American people about a very core fundamental fact, a very important matter,” Carr said.
Hours later, Nexstar Media Group said its ABC affiliate stations would preempt the show “for the foreseeable future.” That evening, ABC announced it was taking the show off the air “indefinitely,” The Hill reported.
Following the Sept. 17 news, Trump called the suspension “Great News for America” in a Truth Social post. He praised ABC for “finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” adding that “Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.”
