By Roz Morris, Managing Director, TV News London Ltd
What can we learn from the American talk show host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s reappearance on TV after his temporary suspension by ABC and Disney?
Looking at the ‘Kimmel Crisis’ we can learn a lot about how to make a successful non-apology- apology, the continuing battle between right and left in the US over free speech and the media, as well as the continuing decline of traditional TV broadcasting in the face of the growth of social media audiences.
Kimmel’s late-night ABC show was pulled off air after he stated that the killer of right-wing campaigner Charlie Kirk in Utah on September 10 was a supporter of Trump and his MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement.
Kimmel said in his monologue on 15 September that MAGA wanted to exploit the killing.
“The Maga gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” he said.
Kimmel’s monologue was recorded before the FBI stated that the assassin was a liberal who hated Kirk because of his conservative, Christian ethics.
A MAGA plot?
Kimmel’s implication that the shooting was being exploited by MAGA was seen as distasteful and inappropriate by many people and definitely not funny.
President Trump and his supporters strongly objected to Kimmel’s comments and the Jimmy Kimmel Live Show, which had been running as a late-night TV show on ABC Television for nearly 23 years, was taken off air by Disney, ABC’s parent company, after dozens of local TV services said they would not run it and pressure from the Trump-appointed head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The comeback
Just under a week later and following protests and a huge political row about free speech in America, Kimmel was back on ABC and made a 20-minute statement about his suspension at the start of his show.
‘I have no illusions about changing anyone’s mind, but I do want to make something clear, because it’s important to me as a human and that is, you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,’ Kimmel said while choking up and revealing that he had messaged Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika expressing sympathy soon after her husband’s death. ‘I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.’
He added: ‘I get that what I said was ill-timed or unclear.’
Sorry not sorry?
However, that was as far as any kind of apology went. Jimmy Kimmel used his comeback to lash out at Trump over censorship and US government attempts to curb criticism which he sees as curbs on free speech. He received one of many standing ovations during his monologue as he told his audience: ‘A government threat to silence a comedian the government doesn’t like is un-American.’
Huge Support
He spoke about the huge support he had received after his suspension from people across the spectrum of political opinions in the US and across the world and talked passionately about the need for preserving free speech in America .
He ended by praising Erika Kirk for her ‘selfless act of grace’ in stating at her husband’s funeral that she forgave the man who shot dead her husband. His studio audience gave him another standing ovation and the show continued as normal with satirical comments about the US government and President Trump.
What can we learn from Kimmel’s statement?
In terms of handling a difficult situation, where there is a huge potential for reputational damage, this statement was a success.
Firstly – Jimmy Kimmel seized the agenda for himself.
In his 20-minute monologue he made sure he sounded a little contrite – briefly – but then went on the attack. He changed the subject from defending any mistakes in tone, or fact, that he himself might have made to attacking the Trump administration on the issue of free speech. He broadened this out from comedians like himself, to highlighting restrictions proposed on journalists reporting about the US government.
Secondly – TV versus YouTube
He quoted President Trump saying that he (Kimmel) had low ratings for his TV show with just over a million and a half regular TV viewers. ‘Well, I don’t tonight’ he said with a smile. In fact, the relaunched Jimmy Kimmel show gave ABC their largest ever audience for the show, despite it not being broadcast on all ABC affiliate stations. More than 6 million watched the TV broadcast and more than 15 million watched on YouTube. So, this has definitely reinforced the fact that social media is now far more effective in drawing a big audience than traditional broadcasting.
Thirdly – Trump versus the media
Kimmel wasn’t overly triumphant. He acknowledged that his show was still not being aired in many US towns and cities including Washington DC. ABC and Disney are currently discussing financial takeover issues with the FCC so this is a political issue that hasn’t gone away.
Trump has already hinted that he might sue ABC for putting Kimmel back on air and the charging of former FBI Director James Comey with two offences related to his testimony to Congress shows the Trump administration is not shy about using criminal as well as civil court cases to attack its critics.
Many Americans of all political opinions have shown they back Kimmel’s right to freedom of expression and Jimmy Kimmel and his staff producing his show at ABC have kept their jobs for now. But, as he pointed out in his comeback monologue, the Trump administration is trying to get other TV talk shows cancelled.
Stephen Colbert announced during a July taping of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” that CBS had made the decision to end the show in May 2026. Colbert did not give a reason for this cancellation after 10 years of broadcasting but CBS and its parent company Paramount Global said it was ‘purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.’
Despite the company’s response, some of Colbert’s supporters have pointed out that days before Colbert’s announcement, he called a $16 million settlement between CBS and the Trump administration, over a dispute about a Trump interview, a ‘big fat bribe’ in his show’s opening monologue.
So, now they are under attack from both the Trump administration and from financial realities (advertising money having largely moved to social media), will all the traditional US TV talk shows eventually have to move to YouTube only?
Kimmel’s comeback show included a sketch with Robert de Niro as a mafia boss heading the FCC. Let’s hope that remains just satire and that Kimmel can carry on being funny about Trump – but stay away from people who’ve just been murdered.
You can view the Jimmy Kimmel Live show comeback monologue below.
