In one of his first public statements looking back on the controversy over comments he made on his late night TV show and its ensuing temporary cancellation, Jimmy Kimmel has addressed Disney and ABC pulling his show off the air. Kimmel’s comments regarded Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and the reaction of far-right groups. The content was deemed “unacceptable” and Jimmy Kimmel Live! was shut down without any warning, only to return a few days later. The issue was ultimately resolved, and now Kimmel has shared his thoughts on the career-altering situation he went through.
The late night TV host appeared at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles (via YouTube), where he spoke to Lucas Shaw about the cancellation, admitting the whole thing came as something of a surprise:
“I didn’t think there was a big problem. I just saw it as distortion on the part of some of the right-wing media networks, and I aimed to correct it. I have problems, like, all the time. And it’s kind of funny, because sometimes you think, ‘Oh, this is not a problem,’ and then it turns into a big problem, and then sometimes it goes the other way, where you think, like, ‘Uh-oh, this is going to be a problem,’ and nobody really notices.”
Kimmel says he realized it was going to be a problem when they pulled the show off the air. Giving more insight about what went on backstage when ABC and Disney made their sudden decision, Kimmel didn’t seem to have any grudges against Disney’s Dana Walden and Bob Iger: “They were really good conversations. I mean, like, really good conversations. These are people that I’ve known for a long time, and who I like very much. And we all wanted this to work out best.” Kimmel continued:
“I ruined Dana’s weekend. It was just nonstop phone calls all weekend. But I don’t think the result would have been as positive if I hadn’t talked to Dana as much as I did, because it helped me think everything through. And it helped me understand where everyone was coming from. I can sometimes be reactionary, I can sometimes be aggressive, and I can sometimes be unpleasant. And having those days to think about it was helpful.”
Kimmel Returned With a Powerful Message of Reflection
Even though it seemed at first as though ABC and Disney would hold to their decision, Kimmel returned after a few days of uncomfortable tension. He did so in his usual manner, delivering a powerful message in the middle of uncertainty regarding his future on television. According to Kimmel himself, he only meant for it to be truthful:
“Ultimately, I wanted to kind of cover every base if I could. It was something really that had to come from inside me. It had to be truthful, and I had to lay it all out there and just be honest about what I was feeling and what I’d experienced. I think that it probably went about as well as it could go. I knew that it wasn’t going to be perfect. There were always going to be people that didn’t like it and didn’t accept it, but the important thing to me was that I was able to explain what I was trying to say.”
- Release Date
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January 26, 2003
- Network
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ABC
