Late-night hosts rejoiced Monday after Walt Disney Co. announced that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would be back on the air Tuesday.
“Just a few hours before we tape this broadcast, we got word that our long national late nightmare is over,” Stephen Colbert said on “The Late Show” Monday night, “because Disney announced that ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ will return to air on ABC tomorrow, Tuesday night.”
He followed that with a series of whooping cheers.
“Once more, I am the only martyr in late nights,” he added dramatically, clutching the Emmy Award he won shortly after hearing he wouldn’t be coming back next season. “Wait, unless CBS, you wanna announce anything?”
Over at “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart thanked viewers for bluffing about canceling their Disney+ accounts: “That campaign that you all launched, pretending that you were going to cancel Hulu while secretly racing through four seasons of ‘Only Murders in the Building,’ that really worked. Congratulations.”
Seth Meyers continued the celebration of Kimmel’s return to the airwaves on his “Late Night” segment “A Closer Look.”
“A massive national backlash to Trump’s crackdown on free speech, even among conservatives,” Meyers said. “I haven’t seen a poll yet, but I think if you asked Americans if the president should be dictating what TV hosts can and can’t say, you’d get about 3% positive and —” Meyers then cut to a clip of Trump saying, “97% negative.”
Last week, Disney suspended Kimmel after the host said , in part, that “the MAGA gang” was “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.” On Monday, Disney released a statement about the situation.
“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 statement said.
The show was initially suspended indefinitely after Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The companies that operate ABC-affiliated stations took the action after the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said on a podcast that ABC had to do something about Kimmel’s comments.
The Hollywood community rallied behind the comedian, protesting outside the El Capitan Entertainment Centre, where the show is filmed. Movie, TV and stage stars, along with comedians, directors and writers, signed an open letter from the American Civil Liberties Union, urging Americans to fight to defend their constitutionally protected right to free speech.
Disney apparently heard the people and announced Kimmel’s return. But that might not end the drama. Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group said on Tuesday they will not run “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” even if ABC will.
So, grab your bucket of popcorn, drink a cup of coffee and tune in.