Kimmel admitted that he was mad when ABC suspended him, but praised his bosses for putting him back on the air. “Unjustly, this puts them at risk.”
He mocked Trump for criticising him for bad ratings. “He tried his best to cancel me and instead he forced millions of people to watch this show,” Kimmel said.
The decisions by Sinclair and Nexstar left ABC stations in Washington, DC; St Louis; Nashville, Tennessee; and Richmond, Virginia among the cities airing something else. WJLA-TV, the Sinclair-owned station in Washington, instead aired a newscast and an episode of the chain’s show, The National Desk.
Kimmel’s suspension came after an angry reaction to comments he made in monologues early last week. A relentless Trump critic in his comedy, Kimmel suggested that many Trump supporters were trying to capitalise on Kirk’s death and were “desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them”.
FCC CHAIR ACCUSES KIMMEL OF MISLEADING THE PUBLIC
Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr last week said it appeared that Kimmel was trying to “directly mislead the American public” with his remarks about Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old Utah man charged with Kirk’s killing, and his motives. Those motives remain unclear. Authorities say Robinson grew up in a conservative family, but his mother told investigators his son had turned left politically in the last year.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said before ABC announced the suspension. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Those remarks set a backlash in motion, with Republican Senator Ted Cruz saying that Carr acted like “a mafioso”. Hundreds of entertainment luminaries, including Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand and Jennifer Aniston, signed a letter circulated by the American Civil Liberties Union that called ABC’s move “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation”.
Podcaster Joe Rogan weighed in Tuesday on Kimmel’s side. “I definitely don’t think that the government should be involved – ever – in dictating what a comedian can or can’t say in a monologue,” Rogan said. “You are crazy for supporting this because this will be used on you.”
Some consumers punished ABC parent Disney by cancelling subscriptions to its streaming services.
Trump had hailed Kimmel’s suspension and criticised his return, writing on his Truth Social platform: “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back … Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE.”
Actor Robert De Niro appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday, impersonating Carr being interviewed by Kimmel. De Niro, as Carr, said the FCC had a new motto, “sticks and stones can break your bones”.
Isn’t there more to the saying, Kimmel asked, that words can never hurt you?
“They can hurt you now,” De Niro responded, saying you have to make sure to say the right ones.
