Jimmy Kimmel is back on the air, but a significant portion of viewers in the US will miss the late-night show that sparked a First Amendment controversy last week. Yielding to the demands of Turning Point USA, the movement founded by conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed in Utah, local TV giants Sinclair and Nexstar have announced they will be taking the late-night show off the airwaves, which Disney greenlit again yesterday.
"We're in discussions with ABC about re-airing the show," said Sinclair, whose affiliates include WWJLA, which broadcasts in the strategic Washington area. Nexstar was more categorical, announcing the indefinite blackout of the comedian for suggesting that Kirk's killer emerged from the MAGA universe. Together, the two groups control a quarter of ABC's partner networks.
“It’s a good thing” that “some local TV stations have stood up to a national programmer like Disney,” Carr told X after downplaying his role as eminence grise in the comedian’s dismissal: “It was all a question of ratings,” not government pressure.
Politicians and celebrities, who had sided with the popular comedian in recent days, breathed a sigh of relief, while dissenting voices emerged from the right : after Turning Point, Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News anchor turned YouTube host, wrote on X that "it must be nice to be on the left. 'Cancellation' lasts five nights and then you're back in the spotlight. On the right, you're underground."
Even conservative commentator Matt Walsh quipped: "Kimmel was suspended for a few days, but progressives say it was a more serious attack on free speech than the shooting and killing of Charlie Kirk." Calling it a "huge victory for free speech," California Governor Gavin Newsom, among the first politicians to slam Disney last week, "thanked everyone except Carr," the head of the FCC whose pressure is said to have prompted ABC to suspend the show. Anna Gomez, the only Democratic commissioner of the FCC, also applauded, praising Disney for "their courage in the face of threats."
For the Burbank giant, the decision to cancel Kimmel quickly proved potentially costly: the open letter from around 500 stars—including Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Laura Dern, Ariana Grande, Ron Howard, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sean Penn, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Barbra Streisand—had raised doubts, according to the Wall Street Journal, about the willingness of many stars to work with the House of Mickey Mouse again, while some customers of the Disney+ and Hulu streaming channels began canceling their subscriptions.
(Unioneonline)