Jimmy Kimmel to return to air following suspension over Charlie Kirk comments
It sounds like Jimmy Kimmel is going to return to America's TV screens, with it being announced that his show is coming back following his suspension for comments he made after Charlie Kirk was shot and killed.
Kimmel is the presenter of Jimmy Kimmel Live! (as you can probably guess by the name) and he had said that Donald Trump's supporters were 'weaponising' the death of Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead at 31.
Speaking on his show on 15 September, he said that the US had hit 'new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise' Kirk's shooter so they could 'score political points from it'.
He also called out US President Donald Trump for giving a statement on Kirk's shooting in which he started talking about some of the construction work going on at the White House.
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ABC - a network owned by Disney - later announced that 'Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be preempted indefinitely', a move which met with significant backlash from famous faces and US politicians alike, who claimed Kimmel's suspension was a 'mafioso' move.
Now, TMZ reports that Disney, which owns ABC, provided a statement saying Kimmel will be back on the air tomorrow (23 September).
They said: "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."
One person who was very happy about the initial suspension was Trump, who made jabs at Kimmel during his speech at Charlie Kirk's memorial on Sunday (21 September), telling the gathered crowd that the TV presenter had 'no talent and no ratings'.
The decision to suspend Kimmel had also had a number of people declaring they would be cancelling their Disney Plus subscriptions in protest unless he was brought back.
She-Hulk star Tatiana Maslany took to social media to tell people to cancel their subscriptions, while the suspension attracted condemnation from others.
Praise for Kimmel came from his fellow late night talk show hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon, who said getting rid of Kimmel's show would be a 'blatant assault on freedom of speech' and said they 'hope he comes back'.
Jon Stewart, meanwhile, hosted an episode of his show in which the decor had been changed to a gaudy gold for an episode of The Daily Show in which he put on a faux-sycophantic show pretending to praise the Trump administration.
Topics: Jimmy Kimmel, Charlie Kirk, Disney, US News
Joe Harker