Jimmy Kimmel will resume his late-night ABC talk show tomorrow night (Tuesday, 9.23), a Disney statement has announced.
Perhaps Disney’s decision had more to do with trying to arrest the Disney-subscriber-bleeding and less to do with Disney honcho Bob Iger showing a little moxie…you tell me.
Kimmel was suspended last week after making an odd, bordering-on-clueless remark during a monologue…a remark that seemed to question the conventional narrative about accused Charlie Kirk murderer Tyler Robinson may have been motivated by his feelings for a live-in transgender biomale furry “girlfriend” named Lance Twiggs…let me start again.
For some reason Kimmel’s monologue remark avoided or sidestepped a prevailing (if unproven) view that Robinson pulled the trigger because he was enraged by what he and others believed were hateful, dismissive attitudes toward the LGBTQ and/or transgender communities from Kirk.
One presumes that Donald Trump, his kneejerk-acolyte brute squad and FCC chairman Brendan Carr are seething and punching the refrigerator as we speak.
How will the Nexstar-owned affiliates react to this?
Disney statement quoted by N.Y. Times reporter John Koblin:
“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.
“It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. 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.”
I’m presuming that the financial situation is still not good for Kimmel’s show (ditto the situation regarding CBS’s Late Night with Stephen Colbert) as far as a cost-vs.-earnings comparison is concerned. But against all odds and despite the repressive, sabre-rattling, authoritarian bully-boy maneuvers of the Trumpies, Disney clearly wasn’t comfortable with the free-speech-blowback reaction that was activated by the Kimmel suspension.
Question for Kimmel: Did you honestly think that if it turns out that Robinson is in fact guilty…did you honestly suspect or believe that he wasn’t motivated by rage over Kirk’s statements about the LGBTQ and trans communities in particular?