The late-night panorama took a significant hit this 12 months with the surprising cancellation of The Late Present with Stephen Colbert. Not lengthy after, ABC surprised viewers by pulling Jimmy Kimmel Stay!—nevertheless it seems the viewers wasn’t the one group caught off guard. I simply discovered, through new reviews, that the choice to droop the present was so abrupt that celeb company have been already en path to the El Capitan Theater once they discovered the taping had been canceled.
The information comes from a latest article from CNN, which suggests the beautiful transfer got here simply hours after FCC Chair Brendan Carr made feedback about Kimmel on a podcast. On the time, Carr instructed the company may go so far as revoking ABC affiliate licenses in response to Kimmel’s latest on-air feedback in regards to the public response to Charlie Kirk’s demise. ABC, which Disney owns, made the decision to tug the present mid-production—whereas staffers have been nonetheless prepping upcoming episodes and speaking with expertise reps.
“We’re all shell-shocked,” one Hollywood publicist instructed CNN. One other merely stated, “I can’t consider that is actual life.”
Wanda Sykes, who was booked as a visitor on that night time’s present, echoed the disbelief in a video posted to Instagram. “Hello everybody, I’m in a full face of make-up as a result of I used to be presupposed to go over and have a chat with my pal Jimmy Kimmel,” she stated, earlier than shifting to a pointed critique of the Trump administration for failing to handle worldwide crises just like the Ukraine conflict and the battle in Gaza, whereas “ending the liberty of speech in his first 12 months.” She ended her message with a stark plea: “For these of you who pray, now’s the time to do it.”
In the meantime, viewers members have been allegedly already lined up outdoors the Hollywood Blvd. theater once they have been instructed the taping had been canceled. Some had traveled throughout the nation for the expertise.
Internally, sources say the choice despatched shockwaves by means of ABC. Jimmy Kimmel has hosted the present for over 20 years, and his spouse, Molly McNearney, is just not solely an integral inventive pressure but in addition the manager producer and head author. In keeping with sources near the manufacturing, staffers should not being laid off proper now, and Stay! hasn’t been formally canceled. Nevertheless, there’s no clear timeline for the present’s return. This state of limbo has led many to guess on whether or not the host will return to late-night earlier than the 2025 TV schedule ends, or if he’ll return in any respect.
Following ABC’s resolution to tug Kimmel off the air, quite a lot of viewers are seemingly canceling their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions in protest. Customers took to social media, sharing screenshots confirming their cancellations with hashtags like #BoycottDisney and #BoycottABCNetwork, citing free speech issues and frustration with Disney’s dealing with of the state of affairs. One person even claimed to have canceled a deliberate Disney trip.
And it’s not simply followers talking out. Marvel Studios alums—together with She-Hulk star Tatiana Maslany, Pedro Pascal, and Mark Ruffalo—have voiced assist for Kimmel, with a few of them even becoming a member of the refrain of voices urging followers to cancel these subscriptions.
Whether or not the present returns, modifications course, or involves an finish continues to be unclear. However one factor’s certain: the suspension blindsided everybody, from the host to the company who have been already on their strategy to the studio.