Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ to return to the air Tuesday after suspension for Charlie Kirk comments, ABC says
The network’s decision to suspend the show last week prompted a strong backlash.
ABC will be putting Jimmy Kimmel Live! back on the air on Tuesday, less than a week after the show was abruptly suspended over comments made by its host. The network announced last Wednesday that the popular late-night show would be suspended “indefinitely” in response to Kimmel’s comments about the political response to conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death.
“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, which owns ABC, 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.”
During his monologue on Sept. 15, Kimmel said that President Trump’s supporters were trying to “score political points” by portraying Kirk’s accused killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, as a left-wing radical, and suggested that Robinson was “one of them.”
