In his first show after he was a week off the tube, Jimmy Kimmel thanked the Republicans who came up for his TV program last week. “It is brave of them to speak out to this government,” said Kimmel. “They earn praise for that.”
He mentioned the Senators Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, among others. Those prominent republicans said last week that it was not a good development that the show of Kimmel seemed to disappear from the tube under pressure from the federal media supervisor FCC. Among other things, they called it a dangerous precedent on the basis of which a subsequent president of Democratic house could intervene against right-wing TV programs in the future. “I didn’t think I would ever say this,” said Kimmel, “but Ted Cruz is right.”
About the immediate reason for his suspension – a remark about the murder of the right -wing influencer Charlie Kirk – Kimmel said on Tuesday that he “did not have the intention” to “laugh about the murder of a young man.”
He also lashed out to Donald Trump. “The president of the United States has made it very clear that he wants to see me and hundreds of employees fired. Our leader celebrates the fact that Americans are losing their jobs because he cannot stand a joke.” A government that threatens a comedian that she does not like to silence is “On-American,” said Kimmel.
‘Mafia practices’
In the United States, it was awaited with great tension what Kimmel would say on his return. On Wednesday, September 17, Disney, the parent company of Network ABC where the show is broadcast, took his program for an indefinite period of time. That decision led to a lot of fuss, because it seemed to have been taken under political pressure.
Two days earlier, Kimmel had made a remark in his opening monologue that had not been good for many Republicans. Kimmel said that the “Maga group” around Trump did everything to show that Charlie Kirk’s shooter “was not one of them” and tried to get “political gain” out of the murder.
Brendan Carr, the Chairman of Media Supervisor FCC appointed by Trump, then fiercely against the program. He called his comments “the sickest possible behavior” and threatened to withdraw the license of ABC. “We can do this in the easy or the difficult way,” he said in a podcast.
The fact that Disney took Kimmel off the tube a day later led to a lot of indignation. The decision grew at lightning speed into a focal point of a swelling discussion about freedom of expression in the US. Ted Cruz said that Carr was “a nice guy,” but his words “dangerous”. “It is as if a mafia boss comes in your bar and says,” You have a nice bar, would be a shame if something happened to it. “His colleague Rand Paul called Carr’s comments” absolutely inappropriate “(Trump, on the other hand, was jubilating about suspending the show).
The pressure on Disney quickly rose: in Hollywood, where the show is recorded, script writers and democratic politicians took to the streets for freedom of expression and against Disney’s decision. According to Google there was a peak in the search term ‘Cancel Disney Plus’, a streaming service from the company. Actors such as Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep signed a letter that ABC called for Kimmel.
In the end, Disney announced on Monday that the program would come back on Tuesday evening, after having had conversations with Kimmel. The network further said that it had come to the earlier decision “not to throw oil on the fire in a tense situation during an emotional moment for our country.” According to the Financial Times the network was shocked of the discussion that had arisen.
Not everywhere back on the tube
Kimmel’s opening monologue – who started after an extensive applause from the public – was longer than usual on Tuesday evening, and had alternating jokes and serious moments. He said he had to explain to Disney how you can activate your Disney Plus subscription again, and told that a German comedian had offered him a job. “This country has become so authoritarian that the Germans now say to me: come here.”
Kimmel also said that he did not agree with Disney’s decision to stop the show, but thanked the company for the chance to come back. “This is risky for them,” he said.
The comedian also discussed the controversial jokes he made last week and led to his temporary suspension. “I understand that some people thought these comments may have found badly timed or unclear,” he said with emotional voice. He also expressed his appreciation for the conservative political commentators Ben Shapiro and Clay Travis, who also recorded it for the show. He called FCC boss Carr “the most ridiculous car [car] Those republicans have embraced since the cyber truck ”.
Just before the broadcast, President Donald Trump had moved on his social network Truth Social. He called Kimmel a “extension of the Democratic Party” and seemed to threaten with a lawsuit for defamation. “The last time I am behind them [ABC] Got, they gave me 16 million dollars, “he wrote, in a reference to an earlier settlement with the network.
With Kimmel’s return, the issue is not yet fully resolved. The regional networks Sinclair and Nexstar, which manage a large number of local TV channels, refused to broadcast the show on Tuesday. Soon after Kimmel’s comments, they made their dissatisfaction clear to ABC. According to a reconstruction by The New York Times Also played a significant role in ABC’s decision to stop the show for the time being.
Both media companies are mainly active in Republican states, such as Texas and Alabama. Sinclair demanded apologies from Kimmel to the Charlie Kirk family. Nexstar is currently engaged in a merger with competitor Tegna at 6 billion dollars, for which the FCC permission needs.
Whether the two continue to hold their boycott from Kimmel must prove. In international media, experts and insiders were surprised that Sinclair and Nexstar are looking for a fight with Disney. The latter, with a large number of sports rights, is much more powerful towards the two smaller parties. On Tuesday evening they had not blinked with their eyes. In large cities such as St. Louis, New Orleans, Salt Lake City and Nashville, nothing could be seen from Kimmel.
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