Jimmy Kimmel What to expect in show's return tonight

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00:00Welcome back and alive now. I'm Austin Westfall. ABC will reinstate Jimmy Kimmel Live after

00:06criticism over comments that Kimmel made about the conversation surrounding Charlie Kirk's

00:12shooter. Kimmel last week saying, quote, many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on

00:18the murder of Charlie Kirk and that the MAGA gang was desperately trying to characterize this kid

00:23who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, unquote. ABC now today releasing the

00:29following statement saying, last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show

00:35to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. It is a decision

00:42that we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. The company

00:48also saying, we've spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy and after

00:53those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday. Sharon Waxman,

00:59is here. Sharon is the editor-in-chief and founder of The Wrap. Sharon, late last week,

01:05your sources were telling you that ABC wanted to resolve this within days, not weeks, and you were

01:11right. Did it always seem like ABC wanted to bring Kimmel back eventually? Was that what your sources

01:17were telling you? Yeah, they were insistent every time that we spoke to them that the show was not

01:24canceled. And in fact, they said the show wasn't even suspended, that it was just, I don't know what

01:30the word they used was even. It was just preempted, I think was the word that they used by the events

01:37and the emotions around the events and the response to that monologue that you mentioned. But they made

01:45very clear that they were not intending to cancel the show and were looking to find a path back and

01:49were actively working on it. And my reporting today suggests that they worked on that, just that

01:56outcome all weekend. And again, today with Bob Iger and Dana Walden, the CEO of Disney and the head of

02:05ABC meeting with Jimmy Kimmel. So a spokesperson for Turning Point said that Disney and ABC caving and

02:14allowing Kimmel back on the air is not surprising, but it's their mistake to make. Nextstar and Sinclair

02:20do not have to make the same choice. I'm curious, Sharon, have we heard from Nextstar or Sinclair as of

02:28the time we're taping this? Well, we've reached out to them and we've not heard from Sinclair. We have

02:34heard back from Nextstar that they have no comment. They are going to wait and see, it seems to me,

02:40what Kimmel says tomorrow. That's pretty much one of my big questions too. What are we listening for

02:47during Kimmel's first monologue back? Well, it's interesting because Disney's statement that you

02:54read was not, they didn't say the words were sorry, but it is an acknowledgement that his monologue was

03:02at the very least insensitive. I don't know what he's going to say. We ran a piece today in The Wrap

03:08that's getting a lot of attention about what were the options for Disney to bring Kimmel back since

03:15they've stayed to clearly that's their aim. And the first option that our writer listed was that Jimmy

03:22comes back on the air and acknowledges this insensitivity or whatever it is. But, you know,

03:32our writer who's covered television for a very long time does not think that an apology is in the cards.

03:37I don't know. I don't know that they want, you know, I'm sorry if you felt badly by what I said.

03:44You know, I think it would be very awkward for him to say that. But certainly he will say something

03:49that is conciliatory. Nextstar, by the way, for folks who haven't followed this story so closely,

03:57Nextstar owns a number of television stations across the country. They have the ability to limit the

04:05amount of markets that the terrestrial broadcast of Jimmy Kimmel Live is shown in. But, Sharon,

04:10aren't we living in an increasingly digital and streaming world? How much power do the Nextstars

04:16of the world wield in today's media landscape still? Right now they do wield a fair amount of power.

04:24But Disney is not without leverage in that relationship too. They can take action if Nextstar

04:30decides to pull one of their flagship shows off the air. So this is a blinking match. It isn't that

04:39the affiliates, even though you're right, things have moved to digital and that there's lots of

04:45streaming options. It's still true that broadcast is the single biggest simultaneous audience that

04:53are going to find and that those affiliates are valuable. But it's a two-way street. And so we'll

05:00see who blinks. It's either. Yeah. Have we heard from FCC Chair Brendan Carr as of the time we're taping

05:08this? I think that he has stated, no, I don't think we've heard from Brendan Carr. The Democratic member

05:14of the FCC has issued a statement in support of this decision by Disney. But we have not heard

05:22from Brendan Carr yet. So there's been a lot of discussion about this Kimmel situation. There's

05:28been a lot of commentary out there about this. One of the common pieces of commentary that I see is

05:33that somehow, someway, the Trump administration was responsible for pulling Jimmy Kimmel off the

05:38airwaves. But this statement from ABC really kind of cements the idea that this was Disney's idea

05:44to pull him off, correct? Well, of course, it's Disney's decision to pull him off the air. But

05:53Brendan Carr threatened to investigate or to consider a path to pull their broadcast license. So that was

06:03a direct threat from a member of the Trump administration. And certainly, that is regarded by

06:12many people as government intimidation of free expression and of the First Amendment and interfering

06:19in the right to free expression by Jimmy Kimmel. But of course, it's Disney's decision. And today's

06:25decision to put him back on the air is also Disney's. And if we could just put a bow on this,

06:31I suppose, where does this story go from here? We're going to be watching Kimmel's monologue tomorrow.

06:36But what else are you watching for in the days and weeks ahead?

06:39That's a great question. I mean, this whole conflict, this whole situation has ignited a really

06:48broad set of high emotions and discussion in our country around free expression. And even some very

06:57prominent members of MAGA world, whether that's Senator Ted Cruz, or whether that's the podcaster

07:06Ben Shapiro, or even, I believe, Tucker Carlson, have suggested that there are really risks to the

07:14government trying to censor speech or weigh in on whether they should be controlling media at all.

07:20Or further, as Trump, through the weekend, talked about it being illegal for people to say things

07:27that were mean about him. I mean, the Republican Party has traditionally been the party of free

07:34expression and worrying about state interference in those basic constitutional rights. So I would

07:42expect that this is going to continue to be a very difficult topic that we're debating in our

07:50country, not just between the parties, but within the Republican Party itself, and within the power

07:56structure of the Trump administration, who it seems is interested in pushing the line with many of the

08:04media companies, not just Disney. All right, that was Sharon Waxman. She's with The Wrap. We always

08:09appreciate her time. We recorded that interview earlier this evening. Since her and I had that

08:16conversation, we have heard from Sinclair Broadcast Group. They say, beginning Tuesday night,

08:23Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it

08:29with news programming. Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show's potential return.

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