Disney’s top executives reportedly decided to shelve Jimmy Kimmel after he planned to double down on his divisive claims about the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel sparked anger from many conservatives after he falsely said during his Monday monologue on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that the assassin, Tyler Robinson, was on the political right and mocked President Donald Trump’s response to Kirk’s death. Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment co-chairwoman Dana Walden made the executive decision to indefinitely suspend Kimmel’s program after worrying his planned monologue for Wednesday night would worsen the situation.
Kimmel reportedly planned to say on-air that his words were purposefully being misinterpreted by conservatives, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). He also planned to specifically address Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr’s warning during his appearance on “The Benny Johnson Show,” where he said that he could pull the licenses of ABC-affiliated networks over inappropriate and insensitive remarks about Kirk’s assassination.
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” Carr said.
During his Monday monologue, Kimmel criticized conservatives for “desperately trying to characterize [Robinson] as anything other than them.” He then said that Trump reacted to Kirk’s passing in the same way that “a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
“We had 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. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving. On Friday, the White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism. But on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this … “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of somebody he [Trump] called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a gold fish, okay.”
The former late-night host also did not plan to apologize for his remarks, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Iger and Walden worried that Kimmel’s plan to address the situation would “fan the flames with the MAGA fan base,” a source told the Hollywood Reporter. They wanted Kimmel to address his remarks in a way that “would take down the temperature.”
Walden reportedly spoke to Kimmel about his plan on Wednesday, according to The WSJ. After her conversation with Kimmel, she and other senior executives discussed the potential backlash they could face and the safety risk the staff on Kimmel’s show, who had reportedly been receiving threatening emails. These reasons reportedly led Walden and Iger to remove Kimmel’s show from the airwaves.
Nexstar Media Group initially announced its plan on Wednesday to suspend Kimmel’s show until Disney addressed his “offensive and insensitive” comments. ABC announced shortly after that it decided to yank the program off the air.
Liberals and Democratic congressmen have expressed outrage over the cancellation of Kimmel’s show and have accused ABC’s action of being a free speech violation. Democratic California Rep. Eric Swalwell wore a “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” hat during a Thursday segment on “CNN News Central” and accused Trump of having the program removed because he did not like getting made fun of.
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