Reuters

LOS ANGELES: Jimmy Kimmel returned to U.S. late-night television on Tuesday defending political satire against Trump administration &quot;bullying&quot;, six days after his on-air remarks about the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk led Walt Disney DIS.N to suspend his show.&nbsp;Disney&#39;s decision to cut short Kimmel&#39;s exile for comments it initially labeled as &quot;ill-timed&quot; and &quot;insensitive&quot; marked a high-profile act of corporate defiance in the face of Trump&#39;s escalating crackdown on perceived enemies in the media through litigation and regulatory threats.&nbsp;Still, in his first night back on air in nearly a week, Kimmel jockeyed between his usual brand of wry wit and a more sober, sensitive tone addressing the uproar his earlier commentary had unleashed.&nbsp;&quot;It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don&#39;t think there&#39;s anything funny about it,&quot; the &quot;Jimmy Kimmel Live!&quot; host told viewers, his voice choking with emotion, moments after taking the stage to a standing ovation.&nbsp;&quot;Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual - that was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make,&quot; Kimmel, 57, added.&nbsp;Disney, parent company of the ABC network that airs his show, halted its production on September 17, two days after Kimmel said in his opening monologue that President Donald Trump&#39;s supporters were eager to characterize Kirk&#39;s accused assassin &quot;as anything other than one of them&quot; and accused them of trying to &quot;score political points&quot; from his killing.&nbsp;The Trump administration and many of its supporters voiced outrage at Kimmel&#39;s comments, which came five days after Kirk, a close Trump ally and radio-podcast host, was shot dead while speaking on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.&nbsp;In response to Kimmel&#39;s remarks, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr had threatened an investigation and urged television stations to drop Kimmel&#39;s show or face possible fines and revocation of their broadcast licenses.&nbsp;&quot;We can do this the easy way or the hard way,&quot; Carr said then.&nbsp;THANKING HIS DETRACTORSA short time later, Disney announced its immediate, indefinite suspension of Kimmel, sparking a backlash that ultimately grew to include several prominent conservatives who joined Democrats in condemning the FCC for what they branded as attempts at government censorship.&nbsp;&quot;I want to thank the people who don&#39;t support my show and what I believe but support my right to share those beliefs anyway,&quot; Kimmel said on Tuesday, name-checking such luminaries of the political right as commentators Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens, as well as U.S. Republican Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas.&nbsp;&quot;I don&#39;t think I&#39;ve ever said this before, but Ted Cruz is right,&quot; Kimmel said to laughs.&nbsp;Disney also faced pressure from consumers protesting Kimmel&#39;s suspension by canceling their subscriptions to the Disney+ streaming channel.&nbsp;Kimmel joked during the broadcast that Disney only imposed one condition for his return - then pulled a piece of paper from his pocket to read a statement asking viewers to renew their Disney+ service.&nbsp;Even though Disney has now brought Kimmel back to ABC&#39;s lineup, the two largest television station groups of ABC local affiliates - Nexstar Media Group NXST.O and Sinclair SBGI.O - were still boycotting his show.&nbsp;Before Tuesday&#39;s broadcast, Trump opined on his Truth Social online platform that he &quot;can&#39;t believe&quot; ABC gave Kimmel back his show, and hinted at further action against the network.&nbsp;&quot;Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who&#39;s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE,&quot; Trump wrote.&nbsp;&quot;He is yet another arm of the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we&#39;re going to test ABC out on this.&quot;&nbsp;&#39;MUZZLING&#39; COMEDIANS AND THE PRESSKimmel, a four-time Oscars host, said Trump was not just after comedians he disliked, but also journalists, saying of the Republican president: &quot;He&#39;s suing them, he&#39;s bullying them.&quot;&nbsp;ABC News agreed to donate $15 million to Trump&#39;s presidential library to settle a lawsuit over comments anchor George Stephanopoulos made about the civil case brought against the president by writer E. Jean Carroll.&nbsp;And Paramount Global paid $16 million in July to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump claiming that the CBS News program &quot;60 Minutes&quot; deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris that the network broadcast in October.&nbsp;The same month, Paramount announced it was canceling &quot;The Late Show&quot; hosted by comedian Stephen Colbert on CBS. The network said it was a business decision but critics widely saw it as part of a move to please Trump.&nbsp;&quot;I know that&#39;s not as interesting as muzzling a comedian, but it&#39;s so important to have a free press, and it is nuts we&#39;re not paying more attention to it,&quot; Kimmel said.&nbsp;Dispelling any notion he might pull his punches when it came to lampooning Trump on Tuesday, Kimmel opened the show quipping, &quot;I&#39;m not sure who had a weirder 48 hours - me or the CEO of Tylenol,&quot; a reference to Trump&#39;s announcement that linked autism to the use of the popular pain medication by women when they&#39;re pregnant.&nbsp;&quot;Follow the advice of Donald Trump, and you too can look like a glazed ham with deep vein thrombosis,&quot; Kimmel joked. &quot;This is Tylenol. We&#39;re talking about the thing that you take when they won&#39;t let you take anything that works.&quot;&nbsp;Near the end of his monologue, Kimmel returned to the subject that got him briefly banished from late night TV, saying that he was &quot;deeply&quot; moved by the forgiveness Kirk&#39;s widow, Erika Kirk, has voiced for her husband&#39;s 22-year-old accused killer, an expression the host called &quot;a selfless act of grace.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;And if there&#39;s anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that,&quot; he said, his eyes again welling with tears.

Film & TV

Jimmy Kimmel returned to U.S. late-night television  defending political satire against Trump administration "bullying"

Articles tagged with "Late-night television"

Jimmy Kimmel defends free speech as he returns to late-night television from suspension