Our great national censorship nightmare is over — but only for about three-quarters of the ABC stations in America.
Jimmy Kimmel was back on the air Tuesday night after Disney, the parent company of ABC, reversed its decision last week to suspend his talk show over comments he made about MAGA supporters’ response to the killing of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. That initial pause came after increasing pressure from the Trump administration and two TV station groups — Nexstar and the conservative-leaning Sinclair — which said last week they would not air Kimmel’s show.
Whether or not you like Kimmel, his show’s return Tuesday night was a triumph for a few reasons. First, it was a victory for free speech: the return of a show that was taken off the airwaves in part because of oblique threats from the Trump-era Federal Communications Commission’s leadership, and the rebuffing of what my colleague Zack Beauchamp has called a “climate of fear and censorship” in the wake of Kirk’s death, championed by conservative activists.
Second, it was also a new kind of (partial) victory for liberals and their resistance efforts in the second Trump term.
Led by celebrities, podcasters, influencers, and the grassroots — as opposed to any institutions, corporations, billionaires, or political parties — it managed to get a major corporation to resist Trump and restore Kimmel, even though his show is only returning to about three-quarters of the ABC-affiliated TV stations in America.
While a variety of voices pushed back against this attempt at corporate censorship, Nexstar and Sinclair continued to boycott Kimmel’s show last night — airing local news segments instead of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in the nearly 25 percent of local ABC affiliates across the country that they own. They don’t show signs of reversing course yet. And it’s not clear what mechanism — if any — Kimmel supporters have to influence either corporation to change its policy for now.
Kimmel goes “full resistance”
Tuesday night’s monologue might end up being the moment Kimmel revived this new type of resistance — or it might get lost in another wave of Trump-induced news and scandal. It will surely be one of his best rated shows. He came out swinging against Trump, his efforts to punish his critics, and the FCC’s chief Brendan Carr. Kimmel didn’t directly apologize — and instead made an impassioned case for further Trump resistance, called in surprise guest (and Trump arch-enemy) Robert De Niro, and joked about Trump’s physical appearance and the likelihood of an Epstein files drop “to distract us from this now… He tried his best to cancel me, instead he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly.”
His case against Trump was simple.“The President of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke,” he said, holding back tears throughout the address. “A government threat to silence a comedian the President doesn’t like is anti-American. There is some solidarity on that from the right and the left and those in the middle. Maybe the silver lining from this is we found one thing we can agree on, and maybe we’ll even find another one.”
No less potently, Kimmel didn’t identify as a liberal or a Democrat when attacking Trump, but as an American. Kimmel, who joked that he barely paid attention in school, said he never expected to be in his current position — fighting a war of principle against a would-be American despot — but that he was taught by comedians such as Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, and Howard Stern that censoring comedians is “unAmerican.” This was not a progressive or a liberal’s cry of rage; Kimmel attacked Trump from the absolute dead-center.
The angry affiliates problem
Although Kimmel came out strong in his return, there are still other obstacles to reclaiming his former audience. Sinclair and Nexstar are continuing their boycott of his show, setting up a potential showdown with Disney and ABC in the coming days. Sinclair’s position seems ideological — demanding Kimmel apologize to Kirk’s family and make a “meaningful” contribution to Kirk’s activist group Turning Point. Nexstar argues that Kimmel’s speech was harmful — though the company has a deal merging with Tegna, another major station owner, pending before Trump’s FCC.
Combined, their stations reach nearly a quarter of the American viewing public — meaning millions of Americans (in cities like Washington, DC, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and St Louis) who might want to watch Kimmel’s show simply can’t turn on their televisions and do so (I, for one, had to watch his monologue on a clandestine TikTok livestream from my phone).
Kimmel noted much of this during his monologue — citing pressure on affiliates in cities to not air his show and the slippery slope it might create in the future: “Should the government be able to regulate which podcasts the cellphone companies and WiFi providers are allowed to let you download to make sure they serve the public interest?” His studio audience responded with a resounding “No!” Kimmel, and the decision-makers at the Mickey Mouse company might be hoping the rest of the country will keep feeling this way — but who knows if this fracas will be remembered beyond being just one more Trump scandal.
As the first few months of the second Trump term have shown, other major companies, law firms, universities, and organizations have acquiesced in the face of confrontation with Trump. And massive street protests have been absent.
That’s part of what makes this moment of individual-led backlash seem so noteworthy — and one reason why it’s not clear that it can be replicated. Kimmel raised this specter last night too, noting Trump’s apparent desire to go after late-night comics specifically will probably continue.
“Somehow, [he was able to] squeeze Colbert out of CBS, then he turned his sights on me, and now he’s openly rooting for NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers and the hundreds of Americans who work for their shows,” he said. “And I hope that if that happens, or if there’s even any hint of that happening, you will be 10 times as loud as you were this week. We have to speak out against this. He is not stopping. And it’s not just comedy. He’s gunning for our journalists too.”
Celebrities, influencers, and everyday people forced Disney’s hand
In the week or so that Kimmel was off the air, the strongest efforts to push back against Trump and conservative efforts to censor Kimmel did not come from corporations, the stock market, or a major political institution. Instead, it was primarily driven by “talent” — actors, comedians, podcasters, and other individuals with a built-in audience and a public platform.
It came from the hundreds of Hollywood movie stars, comedians, and other celebrities who signed open letters: one from the ACLU with more than 400 A-list signers, including Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Robert DeNiro, and Lin-Manuel Miranda; and another of more than 600 comedians including Rosie O’Donnell, Kathy Griffin, and Chelsea Handler.
It was musicians like Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, and Olivia Rodrigo who backed out of promotional events and appearances for Disney-backed projects, and at least one TV writer who said they wouldn’t work with Disney in protest. It was current and past Marvel stars posting critically about Disney and free speech to their followers (Marvel Studios is owned by Disney).
And it was other current or former late-night and TV show hosts like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman, and Seth Meyers that dedicated their monologues, segments of their shows, or in-person appearances over the last week to pillory Trump and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and to support Kimmel.
It was “a blatant assault on freedom of speech,” Colbert, whose own show is being scrapped under dubious circumstances, warned in his monologue last week. “We all see where this is going… You can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian—a criminal—administration in the Oval Office,” Letterman warned at a festival appearance last week. “It is possible to stand up to this kind of bullying and censorship,” Meyers said to his own audience on Monday night.
Even some of the podcasters and new media stars that often sympathize with MAGA voiced concerns over the last week. “Manosphere” influencers like the comedians Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh spent time on their show and on social media explaining why conservatives should be outraged. Meanwhile, media personalities at the sports and pop culture brand Barstool Sports debated each other on whether the suspension was, in fact, government censorship.
And though it took him some time to record an episode and he didn’t call out Trump by name, Joe Rogan, probably the most vocal “free speech” defender of the podcasting world, ultimately criticized the FCC, too, and warned those cheering Kimmel’s silencing that the same powers could be used on them in the future on Tuesday.
Individually, each of these statements, posts, and actions reached very different segments of the American public; in today’s siloed media and information ecosystem, perhaps none of them share an audience. But combined, they helped to spur on a tidal wave of pressure and criticism on Disney, its leadership, and its bottom line. Many of these same celebrities helped to encourage grassroots cancellations and boycotts of Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions, as well as its theme parks — which seem to have actually caused some economic damage.
Kimmel referenced almost all of this during his opening monologue last night: he thanked his fellow comedians; he joked about the mass subscription cancellations; he thanked those “people who don’t support my show and what I believe, but support my right to share those beliefs anyway,” including Rogan, Ted Cruz, and other conservative media voices. And he set himself up to be, if only for one night, Hollywood’s Resistance leader.
Of course, Trump weighed in before Kimmel even started speaking with another threat: “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative,” he posted on Truth Social.
In the meantime, Disney will continue to allow streaming subscribers to watch Kimmel on Hulu (whose price is about to get higher), even if Nexstar and Sinclair-run local affiliates maintain their refusal to play his show on their stations. And while ABC and Disney’s brass may feel they deserve some credit for Kimmel’s reinstatement — Kimmel thanked them for bringing him back and supporting his show over the years, though “unfortunately, and I think unjustly, this puts them at risk” — the extent of their willingness to fight Trump and a weaponized FCC remain open questions.