Jimmy Kimmel Is Officially Returning to ABC, Suspension Lifted

Less than a week after ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! for Kimmel’s comments about Charlie Kirk, the show is returning to the airwaves.

The popular late-night talk show will return with a new episode tomorrow, September 23.

The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, provided a statement on the show’s return to Variety.

“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,” the company wrote. “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.”

The broadcast world was shocked last week when ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be “preempted indefinitely” after he mentioned the recent murder of conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk.

“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,” Kimmel said on last Monday’s episode.

The chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr, threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of several ABC stations across the country if Disney did not punish the “talentless” Kimmel.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “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.”

Disney’s decision to suspend Kimmel’s show sparked extreme backlash across the country, with many public figures and politicians weighing in about how the act was a clear violation of the First Amendment. As of today, over 400 celebrities (like Tom Hanks and Martin Short) have signed a letter from the ACLU calling the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! an attack on free speech in America.

Two major broadcast corporations, Nexstar Media and Sinclair Broadcast Group, said last week they would not air any more episodes of Kimmel’s show in protest of his comments. It remains to be seen if the companies will hold true to that.