Disney Reportedly in Chaos as Talks About Jimmy Kimmel’s Return to ABC Continue
Disney executives are reportedly engaged in talks to get Jimmy Kimmel back on the air after the late-night host was “suspended indefinitely” on Wednesday (September 17) over comments he made about Charlie Kirk‘s fatal shooting on Monday’s (September 15) Jimmy Kimmel Live.
According to Deadline, discord has erupted inside Disney over Kimmel’s suspension, with a series of “mixed face-to-face and virtual meetings” between the company’s top execs and Kimmel and his team taking place throughout Thursday (September 18).
“It’s an ongoing discussion, with a lot of distrust on one side,” an insider told Deadline. “There’s no light at the end of the tunnel — yet.”
ABC made the decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live! after powerful station group Nexstar announced it would preempt the show on its 32 ABC affiliate stations late Wednesday. Sinclair Broadcast Group later announced it would be doing the same on its own affiliate stations.
This came after threats from Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr earlier in the day, who told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Per Deadline, in addition to Kimmel and his staff, members of the Disney studio and corporate management felt that Disney Entertainment boss Dana Walden and CEO Bob Iger “bent too easily to MAGA pressure yet again.”
“The reaction is like ‘Don’t Say Gay’ on steroids,” one executive told the outlet, referring to the backlash in 2022 after former CEO Bob Chapek’s initial response to Florida’s 2022 Parental Rights in Education Act law, which restricts discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity among kindergarten to 3rd Grade in Florida schools.
One Disney exec added, “This is not how we thought Bob [Iger] would handle this. Senior people told him this is not what we should be doing.”
ABC’s decision has sparked protests outside Disney HQ and the Jimmy Kimmel Live! studio. Several Hollywood stars have also spoken out, including Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, who insisted he won’t work with Disney until Kimmel is reinstated, and She-Hulk star Tatiana Maslany, who encouraged people to cancel their Disney+ subscriptions.
Another exec told Deadline that long meetings were held on Wednesday about what Kimmel had said about the Kirk shooting and what he planned to say on that night’s show. However, ABC yanked the show off the air before Kimmel had a chance to respond.
“It’s such a betrayal,” the exec stated.
Update: As of September 19, Variety reported that insiders say Jimmy Kimmel’s representatives are in active talks with ABC executives to bring Jimmy Kimmel Live back to late-night television after it was pulled from its timeslot on September 17. While no agreement has been finalized, sources indicate that Kimmel and Disney are working toward a compromise.
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A right wing groomer gets killed (which is totally disgusting), and it's news for a week.
A elected official and the spouse are murdered., school children were killed this week,3 policemen are shot dead in PA and it hardly matters. Something is wrong here.
One more thing,how about the right, Was Brian Kilmeade forced to resign or get fired by FOX when he advocated the execution of mentally ill homeless people? Nope. Talk about cancel culture yeah the maga gang are true hypocrites .
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Fox News is not a public broadcast channel like ABc. Kimmel is held to a higher standard. You are free to say what you want, but not free of conseqences!
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Brian Kilmeade also apologized. Kimmel said he would not.
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G
I think he ought to tell them to go fly a kite and then sue them!
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To hell with Disney and all it's products.If they are giving to embrace censorship then we will embrace boycotting them.
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Amen
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B
Who wants to work for a company like that?
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Jimmy, make NO concessions!
We love you and want you back just as you are. We need your humor to keep us from crying.
If the "orange 💩" doesn't like it, he can resign.
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No amount of.money or political hierarchy persuasion can buy this or any American's right for Freedom of speech.. in my opinion..
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Boycott!
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Networks don't get FCC licenses, broadcast stations do. Equal time hasn't been a rule since the 1970s. You need to go back to research class..
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Trump for 1984. What a joke.
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GOP does not equal GOD. Charlie Kirk was a vile and despicable hatemonger. He was repugnant. I'm so thankful to our Lord Jesus Christ for cleansing that wickedness away from this world.
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This isn’t about anything other than kissing/licking the boot of the current administration, and then succumbing to the current administration being able to control what people say in public. If you care about our democracy and the actual ability to have free speech, you want to do a double check on having media controlled my politicians. That’s not living in a free country.
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Are you talking about the fairness doctrine that started in 1949 and was ended by Republicans in 1987?
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You are missing the point here, Bugsy.The point is not the tit for tat-they do, we do-issue, but whether the president of the United States gets to make the call as to threaten a company into firing someone. A company is free to do so, but the government should not be involved in silencing speech. Goes way back to 1776 and the Declaration of Independence. That is why this story is a big deal, not the fairness issue.
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So when is Fox News, and those other Klingons around the Fox Uranus going to be held accountable for their one-sided hate mongering?? Come on Cinderella, if the shoe fits...
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In the meantime Boycott ABC and Disney and Hulu and local and national advertisers! Let them trickle up begin.
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Might be a fun compromise to make one of those execs come out and apologize to Jimmy.
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It seems to me we have two kinds of rules and justice or we are going back to 1930s are we going to have SS troops to lock those who speak against the government ???
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At least CBS hasn't had a reason to suspend Stephen Colbert.
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All he had to do was not be complete scum.
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Who, Kirk?
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