Jimmy Kimmel shares what he feared during show’s suspension: ‘I guess we’re done’
Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has admitted he thought his show, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," was over after ABC suspended the show following comments he made related to the assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel fielded questions about what happened behind the scenes of the suspension for the first time at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles last Wednesday.
"A list of demands was presented to me, and I was not going to go along with any of them," the host said at the conference "And it's like, well, I guess we're done. I said to my wife, 'That's it. It's over.'"
Part of the list of demands from ABC affiliates Nexstar and Sinclair included that Kimmel would issue an apology for his comments on Kirk's death.
Kimmel said he wanted the chance to explain himself after his comments were "intentionally, and I think, maliciously, mischaracterized."
The talk show host also shared that talks following the suspension with Disney CEO Bob Iger and Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, were "really good conversations" and Kimmel believes the brief suspension "probably went about as good as it could go."
"Jimmy Kimmel Live!" was brought back on air on Sept. 23 after being suspended on Sept. 17.
Describing how he prepared for the return episode, Kimmel said, "it was something really that had to come from inside me. It had to be truthful, and I had to lay it all out there and just be honest about what I was feeling and what I'd experienced."
In his return, Kimmel started the show off by addressing the suspension.
"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. I don't think there's anything funny about it," he said.
The show was suspended due to comments made during the monologue of Kimmel's Sept. 17 episode, when he said, "we hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang 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."
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