Guess who’s back, tell a friend!
Last week, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was immediately suspended and taken off air after a monologue he gave in which he criticised the President for how he responded to Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The ABC network claimed Kimmel was inappropriate and the studio wouldn’t stand to see hate speech on their platform. The suspension was praised by the US President in which the POTUS claimed that the show was being suspended due to poor ratings, even remarking that Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers were next to go. Below is the comment that saw Kimmel suspended.
“the Maga gang is desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it” – Jimmy Kimmel
Today it was announced by Disney that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be returning immediately to commence broadcast tomorrow. A statement released by Disney included the below:
“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. 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.”
Prior to this decision the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) released an open letter directly aimed at Disney and publicly condemning and shaming them for their decision. This letter was signed by over 400 Hollywood celebrities including Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro and more.
Kimmel’s cancellation has raised major concerns about there ongoing debate of free speech in the United States. But his return is sure to be an interesting one. Kimmel is already known to be someone to speak his mind and not hold back when discussing controversial political topics, but now he is at the centre of a discussion around free speech and the silencing of the presidents critics. I will be interested to see what his opening monologue will be about when he does return tomorrow and how much he will address the suspension.
