Why was Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show suspended and then reinstated? Here's what we know

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NEW YORK (AP) — ABC will reinstate Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show after the network pulled the host off the air indefinitely in the wake of criticism over Kimmel's comments about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this month.

Officials with the network said in a statement Monday that they had “thoughtful conversations with Jimmy” and that they “reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”

Kimmel’s comments did not extensively focus on Kirk, who was a close ally of President Donald Trump. They took aim at Trump and what Kimmel called his “MAGA Gang” of supporters for their response to the killing. Reacting to Kimmel's comments, two of ABC's largest affiliate owners, Nexstar and Sinclair, said they would be pulling the show from their affiliated stations. ABC later suspended the show.

Responding to Kimmel's reinstatement, Andrew Kolvert, a spokesperson for the organization Kirk founded, Turning Point USA, said in a post on X: “Disney and ABC caving and allowing Kimmel back on the air is not surprising, but it’s their mistake to make. Nexstar and Sinclair do not have to make the same choice.”

On Monday, Sinclair said on X that they plan to replace the returning Jimmy Kimmel Live! with news programming, saying that “discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”

There was no immediate comment from Nexstar in response to messages from The Associated Press. Kimmel, whose contract with The Walt Disney Co.-owned network expires in May 2026, did not immediately comment on his suspension or reinstatement.

Here’s what we know:

Initially, ABC did not explain why they suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!," which the network has aired since 2003. But Nexstar and Sinclair said they would stop airing Kimmel’s show, respectively citing “offensive and insensitive” comments and “problematic comments regarding the murder of Charlie Kirk.”

On Monday, The Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, offered more of an explanation: “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.”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr called Kimmel's comments “truly sick” and had also warned that the network and its local affiliates could face repercussions if Kimmel was not punished. Carr denied on Monday that he threatened to revoke ABC’s local station licenses over Kimmel’s remarks.

In putting Kimmel back on air, The Walt Disney Co. said that “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 called Kirk's death a “senseless murder” a day after the fatal Utah shooting, and he condemned those who appeared to celebrate it — as well as Trump for trying to cast blame on the “radical left.”

He also talked about the aftermath during his show both Monday and Tuesday of the following week, targeting the response from both Trump himself and the president's supporters, whom he accused of “working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.”

The comic focused particularly on the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson.

“The MAGA Gang (is) 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 in his Monday monologue. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”

Kimmel said that Trump’s response “is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK?” He also said that FBI chief Kash Patel has handled the investigation into the killing “like a kid who didn’t read the book, BSing his way through an oral report.”

On Tuesday night, Kimmel mocked Vice President JD Vance’s performance as guest host for Kirk’s podcast.

Kimmel’s suspension came alongside wider efforts by Trump and other conservatives to police speech following Kirk’s killing. It also marks the Trump administration’s latest effort to influence the U.S. media landscape.

In a post on his Truth Social platform after Kimmel's suspension, Trump applauded ABC for “finally having the courage to do what had to be done” and claimed that Kimmel “has ZERO talent” — focusing on what he said were bad ratings, while also lambasting other names in late-night TV.

At a news conference the following day during his state visit to Britain, the president also said that ABC should have fired the comedian long ago. “You can call that free speech or not, he was fired for lack of talent,” he said.

Kimmel's suspension drew both condemnation and praise.

Former President Barack Obama wrote in a social media post on Thursday that the current administration had reached a “new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like” — and that media companies needed to stand up to the “government coercion” rather than capitulate to it.

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Biden administration appointee, wrote in a social media post that, “We cannot allow an inexcusable act of political violence to be twisted into justification for government censorship and control.”

Conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News and NBC personality, maintained that Kimmel's suggestion that Kirk's killer may have been a Trump supporter was a “vile, disgusting lie.”

Others expressed shock and concern over what the move meant for free speech, including actor Jean Smart. “What Jimmy said was FREE speech, not hate speech. People seem to only want to protect free speech when it suits THEIR agenda,” Smart wrote on social media, noting that she was still “sickened” by Kirk's death.

Congressional Democrats later unveiled a bill aimed at bolstering free speech protections against government officials. While it’s unlikely to gain traction in a Republican-controlled Congress, the move echoed sharp criticism over Kimmel’s suspension. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer also called for Carr’s firing.

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AP Media Writer David Bauder contributed to this report.