After days of fierce public debate, Jimmy Kimmel will be back on air. But how did we get here?

ABC said on Monday that Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show would return to television Tuesday night (US time), nearly a week after the network suspended the show over his comments about the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The Walt Disney Co., ABC’s parent company, said in a statement that it spent the past few days having “thoughtful” conversations with Kimmel; after those discussions, it decided his show could resume.

Jimmy Kimmel will be back on air on Tuesday night (local time) after days of fierce public debate. Credit: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

The decision to pull the program “indefinitely” last week, made under unusual pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, had set off a political firestorm over free speech and the government’s ability to silence commentary it dislikes.

Here’s what has happened.

What did Kimmel say?

In his monologue on September 15, Kimmel discussed the politics of the man accused of fatally shooting Kirk, who was known for his outreach with young voters and was credited with helping President Donald Trump win the White House.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” he said.

He then joked about Trump’s response to a reporter who asked about how he was coping with Kirk’s death. Trump said he was doing “very good” and then quickly shifted to discussing a new $200 million ballroom being added to the White House.

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“Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction,” Kimmel said. “Demolition, construction. This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend; this is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”

How it became an issue

The backlash against Kimmel began on Tuesday morning on the social platform X, after a user posted a clip of the show’s opening remarks.

Conservative influencers and media figures drew attention to the monologue throughout the day, saying Kimmel mischaracterised the political beliefs of Tyler Robinson, who is accused of Kirk’s killing.

According to prosecutors, Robinson had written that he objected to Kirk’s “hatred,” but authorities haven’t said which of Kirk’s views he was referring to. His mother told prosecutors that he had recently become more left-leaning and “pro-gay and trans-rights oriented.” Fox News hosts also discussed the clip on the same evening. Things escalated when Musk, the owner of X, whose account has millions of followers, called Kimmel “disgusting” for the comments.

On Wednesday, Brendan Carr, the chair of the FCC, publicly condemned Kimmel’s remarks as “truly sick” and hinted at possible regulatory action against ABC. Speaking on a right-wing podcast, he warned that the network could “do this the easy or hard way,” signalling serious consequences if it didn’t respond.

Tributes for Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University (left) and accused killer Tyler Robinson.Credit: AP

Later in the day, pressure came from Nexstar, which owns 32 ABC affiliate stations. The company announced it would pull Kimmel’s show from its stations indefinitely. Nexstar said the offensive comment made airing the monologue no longer in the “public interest.”

The mix of forces made the issue impossible for ABC and Disney to ignore.

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What did ABC and Disney do?

For Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, and Dana Walden, the company’s head of television, the situation became a high-stakes balancing act. Kimmel had planned to address the growing furore in his monologue on Wednesday night, but Disney’s leadership feared it would inflame tensions amid escalating regulatory threats and affiliate boycotts.

Advertisers were also growing wary, and employees were receiving threatening messages. Facing these risks as the audience was about to start filing into Kimmel’s Hollywood studio to tape Wednesday’s program, Disney chose to suspend the show indefinitely.

On Monday, Disney said in a statement that Kimmel’s show would return to airwaves on Tuesday after having “thoughtful” discussions with Kimmel for the past few days.

“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,” Disney said in the statement.

“It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive,” the statement continued.

“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.”

Has Kimmel responded?

Kimmel still has not commented on the suspension.

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What did other late-night hosts say?

Kimmel’s suspension sparked a wave of support and outrage among his late-night peers. Stephen Colbert, the host of The Late Show, which CBS announced it was cancelling in July, said ABC’s decision was “blatant censorship”.

Jon Stewart, on his show, mocked the censorship and lampooned government control of media.

David Letterman spoke out at The Atlantic Festival last week, criticising the network’s move as an attempt to appease an “authoritarian” administration. Other hosts like Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon echoed concerns about freedom of speech and the dangers of political influence.

More than 400 Hollywood celebrities signed a letter, which was released by the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday, criticising the suspension.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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