US entertainment company Disney has announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live will return to the air, six days after it suspended the talk-show host following threats by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman over comments the host had made about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer.
In announcing the decision on Monday, ABC’s parent company said the show will return to the air on Tuesday and that it had suspended production of the late-night comedy show “to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country”.
Kimmel’s show was taken off the air on September 17, after he joked about the political reaction to the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
The decision by US network ABC to pull the show led to widespread criticism, as well as boycotts against Disney and its streaming services.
In a statement issued on Monday, the ABC said it had “spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday”.
Disney CEO Bob Iger, Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden and Kimmel were in talks over the weekend and reached a decision on Monday to return Kimmel to the air, according to two people familiar with the matter, the Reuters news agency reported.
The decision was guided by what was in the entertainment company’s best interest, rather than external pressure from station owners or the FCC, the sources said.
Kimmel is expected to address the issue when his show returns on Tuesday, according to the sources.
A spokeswoman for Kimmel could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters.
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