Comedian Jimmy Kimmel thought his late-night show was over after ABC suspended the program following comments he made over the assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk.
“A list of demands was presented to me, and I was not going to go along with any of them,” the host said at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday. “And it’s like, well, I guess we’re done. I said to my wife, ‘That’s it. It’s over.’”
In a wide-ranging interview, his first since returning to the air, Kimmel said his comments about Kirk’s killing were “intentionally and maliciously mischaracterized” by the political right.
The host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Walt Disney Co.’s ABC network became a central figure in the Trump administration’s culture wars following the comments he made last month. Kimmel’s remarks prompted Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr to tell TV stations to drop the show or potentially face regulatory consequences.
Kimmel, whose contract is up in May, declined to say whether he will continue hosting the show after that.
Nexstar Media Group Inc. and Sinclair Inc., two large station owners, and ABC suspended the program for several days, prompting a backlash and national debate over free speech. Sinclair asked him to apologize and donate to Kirk’s cause.
Disney returned Kimmel to the air on Sept. 23 to his highest-ever ratings. Nexstar and Sinclair added the show back to their lineups later that week.
In his Sept. 15 monologue, Kimmel accused Republicans of using Kirk’s death to criticize their opponents. “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” he said.
At the Screentime event Wednesday, Kimmel said he saw the reaction to Kirk’s death as “distortion on the part of some right-wing media networks and I aimed to correct it.”
Kimmel didn’t script his monologue on the night he returned to the air, saying it was “something that really had to come from inside me, and had to be truthful and I had to lay it all out there and be honest with what I was feeling.”
The host said he wouldn’t invite Carr on the show but that he would ask President Donald Trump to be a guest.
Despite the show of support for Kimmel from fans and other late-night hosts, the economics for the format are declining, amid pressure from streaming platforms and a generational change in viewership. In July, CBS announced it would cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after its current season, labeling it “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
Kimmel said low ratings for the shows that air before his have cut into his viewership. The availability of clips on YouTube has hurt as well.
Still, he said, he doesn’t believe shows like his and Colbert’s are losing tens of millions of dollars as has been reported. Those numbers don’t include other revenue the shows generate, such as fees from local stations, he said.
When asked who should succeed Bob Iger as CEO at Disney, Kimmel noted that it would be “very foolish for me to answer that question.” But he stated his admiration for Disney’s TV chief Dana Walden, who played a central role in the show’s suspension and return.
“I ruined Dana’s weekend” with nonstop phone calls, Kimmel said. “But I don’t think the result would have been as positive if I hadn’t talked to Dana as much as I did. I love Dana Walden very much and I think she’s done a great job.”
Other speakers Wednesday night included Warner Music Group Corp. Chief Executive Officer Robert Kyncl and Netflix Inc. co-CEO Greg Peters.
The Bloomberg Screentime conference, an annual event focusing on entertainment, sports and the media, continues Thursday morning with guests including Paramount Skydance Corp. CEO David Ellison, music manager Irving Azoff and Sinners director Ryan Coogler. Bloomberg subscribers can follow the action on our live blog of the events Thursday starting at 9:30 a.m. Los Angeles time.
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