Jimmy Kimmel to return to ABC on Tuesday’s air after suspension over Charlie Kirk remarks

Jimmy Kimmel Live! is returning to ABC on Tuesday night after a week of controversy, but the program won’t appear everywhere. Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the nation’s largest station owners, said its ABC affiliates will continue to block the show, replacing it with local news instead.

ABC’s parent company, Disney, said it had suspended the late-night talk show last Wednesday to avoid “inflaming a tense situation” following remarks Kimmel made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The network described those comments as “ill-timed” but confirmed it reached an agreement with Kimmel to bring the show back on the air this week.

The move capped days of political pressure. Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr threatened ABC’s licenses after Kimmel’s remarks, a rare step that critics said blurred the line between government oversight and censorship. Station groups Sinclair and Nexstar both signaled they would preempt the program, and Disney quickly announced an indefinite suspension.

Behind the scenes, sources said Kimmel resisted calls to apologise, insisting his remarks had been taken out of context. That standoff triggered a storm of criticism across the political spectrum, with entertainers, unions, and free speech advocates accusing Disney and its affiliates of bowing to the Trump administration. More than 400 artists — including Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and Jennifer Aniston — signed an ACLU-backed letter supporting Kimmel. SAG-AFTRA and the WGA also issued sharp rebukes, calling the suspension an attack on free expression.

Some Republican lawmakers, among them Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul, sided with Kimmel, warning that government retaliation against broadcasters sets a dangerous precedent. FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, the panel’s lone Democrat, released a statement blasting Carr’s threats as unconstitutional.

Disney’s reversal has been welcomed by advocacy groups such as PEN America, which called the decision a “vindication for free speech.” Still, uncertainty lingers: Sinclair says it will not reinstate Jimmy Kimmel Live! unless the host apologizes and meets its conditions, raising the prospect that millions of viewers could remain shut out.

Kimmel is expected to address the controversy directly when he returns to his late-night desk Tuesday at 11:35 p.m. ET.