For nearly a week in September 2025, the fate of late-night television—and the boundaries of free speech in corporate America—hung in the balance. Disney’s abrupt suspension of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" after the host’s controversial remarks about the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk ignited a firestorm that swept through the entertainment industry, political circles, and the streets of Hollywood. Now, after days of mounting backlash, the company has reversed course, announcing the show’s return to ABC amid cheers, protests, and no shortage of lingering questions.
The trouble began on Monday, September 15, when Jimmy Kimmel, in his signature monologue, addressed the tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk. Kimmel seemed to suggest that Tyler Robinson, the Utah man accused in the killing, might have been a pro-Trump Republican. He said, “MAGA supporters are 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.” According to the Los Angeles Times, those remarks sent shockwaves through conservative social media, where calls for Kimmel’s firing quickly gained traction.
By Wednesday, September 17, Disney, which owns ABC, had made the stunning decision to suspend "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" indefinitely. The official word from the company was terse: the show would be “preempted indefinitely.” The move, as reported by Slash Film, was widely described as state-sponsored censorship and provoked immediate, fierce backlash from figures in both entertainment and politics. Two major ABC affiliate stations dropped the show in response to Kimmel’s comments, and the suspension was announced just an hour before the scheduled taping, leaving dozens of fans waiting outside Hollywood’s El Capitan Theatre with no show to attend.
Disney executives, including CEO Bob Iger and Entertainment Co-Chairman Dana Walden, found themselves at the epicenter of a national debate over free speech and corporate responsibility. As The Hollywood Reporter and the Los Angeles Times detailed, Disney’s leadership was under immense pressure from all sides. On one hand, conservative figures, including Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr (a Trump appointee), called for Disney to take action against Kimmel, warning of potential consequences for the TV stations airing his show. On the other, more than 400 celebrities—including Disney stars like Selena Gomez, Martin Short, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kerry Washington, and Lin-Manuel Miranda—signed an open letter denouncing what they saw as government censorship and defending the right to free expression. The letter, as cited by the Los Angeles Times, declared that such attempts “strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country.”
The backlash was not confined to the celebrity world. Fans and activists rallied outside the El Capitan Theatre, hoisting handmade signs with slogans like “The Mouse is a Cowardly Louse.” At Disney’s Burbank headquarters, a cheer erupted among demonstrators when the company announced Kimmel’s return. Jessica Brown, a SAG-AFTRA member, shouted, “It only took them six days to go back... It resets the tone for what corporations can and can’t do.” Another protester, Manuel Barrera, 82, called out, “Welcome back, Jimmy. This is a win for the American people.”
The controversy also hit Disney’s bottom line. The Los Angeles Times reported that some consumers, including radio personality Howard Stern, canceled their Disney+ subscriptions in protest. The uproar threatened to stain the legacy of Bob Iger, long seen as a champion of creative freedom, and complicated the prospects of Dana Walden, an internal candidate to succeed Iger as CEO when he retires in 2026. Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner weighed in on X (formerly Twitter), lamenting, “If not for university presidents, law firm managing partners, and corporate chief executives standing up against bullies, who then will step up for the first amendment?”
Behind the scenes, the atmosphere was tense. According to sources cited by the Los Angeles Times, Disney executives received threatening emails, and in Sacramento, a person fired at least three bullets into the lobby of an ABC affiliate station. Thankfully, no injuries were reported and a suspect was taken into custody. Within Disney, some employees compared the mood to the uproar that followed the company’s muted response to Florida’s 2022 law restricting classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity.
As the days passed, the debate over Kimmel’s suspension grew increasingly political. President Trump celebrated what he saw as Kimmel’s cancellation, while critics accused Disney of caving to government intimidation. Senator Ted Cruz, in a podcast, criticized FCC Chairman Carr’s approach, warning that conservatives might regret the precedent of government intervention in media. “That’s right out of ‘Goodfellas,’” Cruz quipped, referencing Carr’s warning to TV stations: “We can do it the easy way or the hard way.” Anna M. Gomez, the lone Democrat on the three-member FCC, praised Disney’s reversal, stating, “I am glad to see Disney find its courage in the face of clear government intimidation.”
On Monday, September 22, Disney announced that, after “thoughtful conversations with Jimmy,” the show would return on Tuesday, September 23. The company explained, “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.” Kimmel’s representatives declined to comment, but he is widely expected to address the controversy on air.
Still, not all affiliates were immediately on board. Some ABC stations, including those owned by Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast Group, continued to evaluate the show’s return. Sinclair, for its part, demanded a personal apology from Kimmel to Kirk’s family and a financial contribution to Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk founded—a request Kimmel is unlikely to grant. Without these two station groups, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" would still reach 75% of the country, enough to keep national advertisers interested, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The saga has left the entertainment industry—and the nation—grappling with deeper questions about the limits of free speech, the role of corporations in political debates, and the power of collective action. As Joel Kaplan, a journalism professor at Syracuse University, put it, “When someone threatens you, or bullies you, and you give in, the bully doesn’t say: I’m not going to do it anymore. They just say: It worked, I’m going to keep doing it until you give me everything you have.”
As "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" returns to the air, the reverberations of this week’s events are likely to echo far beyond late-night television. For Disney, for Kimmel, and for the country’s ongoing debate over speech and power, the story is far from over.
