Jimmy Kimmel’s 22-year-running late-night show returned to ABC Sept. 23 after being indefinitely pulled after Kimmel’s comment about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death.
It was announced on Wednesday, Sept. 17, that Kimmel’s show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would be indefinitely pulled by Disney’s ABC, according to PEOPLE.
On Kimmel’s show the night of Sept. 15, he said, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang 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.”
He went on to explain how President Trump appears to be grieving the loss of Kirk.
Kimmel stated that on Friday, Sept. 12, the White House flew its flags at half mass.
He then showed a clip of an interviewer asking President Trump how he is holding up after the loss of his friend, Charlie Kirk, and his response was, “I think very good. And by the way, you see all the trucks. They’ve just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House….”
After showing this clip Kimmel said, “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a four year old mourns a goldfish.”
These are the comments that led the network to come to the conclusion that his show would be pulled indefinitely.
“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, told PEOPLE.
It was announced Monday, Sept. 22 that Kimmel’s show would return on Tuesday, Sept. 23.
“‘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. 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,’” Disney said to USA TODAY.
According to the NEW YORK POST, “Jimmy Kimmel will be back on ABC Tuesday, but the country’s largest owner of its local affiliate stations won’t air his show as he still refuses to apologize for his incendiary, false claim about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer.”
Before the show Tuesday night Kimmel posted on Instagram, the first time that he had posted on social media since his show was pulled.
The post was a picture of him and Norman Lear with the caption reading “Missing this guy today.”
According to USA TODAY, “Lear died in 2023 at age 101. The creator of classic sitcoms like “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” was outspoken about his liberal political beliefs during his life.”
When Kimmel’s show came back on he did make comments about his show being indefinitely pulled.
Kimmel said, “You almost have to feel sorry for him [President Trump]. He did his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now…”