Jimmy Kimmel show returning after ABC pulled it in response to blowback from White House

By Lukas I. Alpert

The show had been shelved over comments Kimmel had made about the shooting of Charlie Kirk, sparking protests against ABC parent Disney over allegations of censorship

Jimmy Kimmel has hosted the late-night show on ABC since 2003.

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's show will return to the air on Tuesday, a week after it had been pulled by ABC following regulatory threats from the White House over comments the comedian had made about the shooting of conservative Charlie Kirk.

The decision by ABC and its parent company Walt Disney Co. (DIS) came after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr threatened to take action against the broadcaster and its affiliates if steps weren't taken to rein in Kimmel.

That triggered a revolt among several of ABC's affiliates, led by Nexstar Media Group (NXST), which decided to pull Kimmel's show from its 33 channels, prompting ABC to more broadly take the Kimmel show off the air indefinitely.

On Monday, the network said it had reached a resolution and that Kimmel's show would return on Tuesday.

"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," an ABC spokesperson said. "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."

But late Monday, Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBGI), which operates 38 ABC affiliates, said it will preempt Kimmel's show when it returns Tuesday and replace it with news programming. "Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show's potential return," the company said in a statement.

Last week's move to pull Kimmel has sparked heavy criticism from within Hollywood, as well as Democrats and free-speech advocates, who said pressure from the Trump administration amounted to an assault on free speech.

On last Monday's broadcast, Kimmel said of Kirk's killing the previous week: "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 it."

"In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving," he said.

Kimmel joked that Trump had mourned Kirk "the way a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish," after Trump pivoted to the construction of a ballroom at the White House when asked about how the activist's death made him feel.

On Wednesday, Carr threatened to take action against broadcasters and their affiliates if steps weren't taken to rein in Kimmel.

"I think it's past time these [affiliates] themselves push back and say, 'Listen, we're not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we're running the possibility of license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion,'" Carr said on conservative commentator Benny Jonhson's YouTube show.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Carr said. "These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."

-Lukas I. Alpert

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09-22-25 1938ET