Scowling Jimmy Kimmel seen hours ahead of TV return that’s been banned by 70 ABC affiliates: Live updates

Jimmy Kimmel was pictured entering the El Capitan Entertainment Centre on Hollywood Boulevard just hours before his show is set to make its return after a nearly week-long suspension.

He was photographed driving in his car, then entering the studio through its back door to avoid news crews.

The show will air at 11.35pm ET on ABC, although not all stations will carry it.

Sinclair and Nexstar stations, which make up about a third of ABC’s affiliates, declared they will not be showing the program.

Actor Glen Powell will be joining Kimmel on Tuesday night for the return of his show, and Sarah McLachlan is slated as the evening’s musical guest.

The Daily Mail is taking a look back at some of the late night host’s most controversial moments.

An insider told the Daily Mail there was ‘chaos’ backstage on the set of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday as staff admitted they had no idea what the host would say on his dramatic return to air.

Jimmy Kimmel, 57, has been married to producer Molly McNearney, 47, since 2013.

The power couple work closely together on his eponymous ABC talk show .

Olivia Rodrigo allegedly pulled out of her perfomance at Disney’s Lilith Fair documentary premiere over the weekend to protest Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension.

Rodrigo, 22, appears briefly in the closing moments of the film, where she describes the groundbreaking all-female music festival as her artistic compass.

‘The Lilith Fair artists were my north stars,’ she says in the segment.

While McLachlan acknowledged the cancellations, it was Rodrigo’s absence that drew the most attention.

Security at Jimmy Kimmel Live! is preparing to tame any audience member who acts out of order during the show’s taping, sources told the Daily Mail.

They are doubling down on the check-in process and are prepared to act if any audience member screams or attempts to do anything, the insider said.

Jimmy Kimmel’s sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez broke his silence and celebrated the show’s return to air in an Instagram post.

‘We are back full of love,’ he said along with a photo of the duo hugging.

Rodriguez was seen dodging questions as he and other staff fled the studio after ABC ‘indefinitely’ suspended the late night talk show last week.

Rodriguez – who began appearing on the late night talk show in 2003 – was seen driving out of the studio in Hollywood with people gathered nearby.

However, he evaded questions about Kimmel being pulled off the air by keeping his windows rolled up.

Rodriguez had initially been a parking lot security guard for the late night talk show – but was offered to appear on the series when he was discovered sleeping inside the car of announcer Dicky Barrett.

After turning down the offer initially, he eventually decided to make an appearance following a conversation with one of the show’s producers.

Rodriguez took part in skits on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and became the comedian’s sidekick on the talk show.

Sarah McLachlan was spotted outside the El Capitan Theatre ahead of her musical guest performance on Jimmy Kimmel’s first show back.

McLachlan abruptly canceled her performance at the premiere of Disney’s highly anticipated Lilith Fair documentary on Sunday in protest of Kimmel’s suspension.

Joe Rogan blasted conservatives who supported Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension in a new episode of his podcast on Tuesday.

‘I definitely don’t think that the government should be involved ever in dictating what a comedian can or cannot say in a monologue,’ Rogan said.

‘The problem is the companies, if they’re being pressured by the government, so if that’s real and if people on the right are like, “Yeah, go get ’em.” Oh my God, you are crazy. You are crazy for supporting this because this will be used on you.’

Rogan defended Kimmel’s controvesial remarks about Charlie Kirk’s murder that led to the supension.

‘I think what he was trying to do was just set up a joke. He was trying to knock on the MAGA people, but also set up a joke, which was good,’ Rogan said. ‘It was very funny.’

He also called it ‘insane’ that Donald Trump weighed in on Kimmel’s suspension.

‘How do you have time while you’re running the world to be tweeting that you don’t like talk show hosts?’ Rogan said. ‘That is so crazy.’

Starting October 21, the cost of an ad-free Disney+plan will climb by $3 to $19 a month, while the ad-supported version will rise by $2 to $12 a month.

Disney has raised prices in October for the past years too, by 25 percent in 2024 and 27 per cent in 2023.

The hikes come as Disney continues to reel from the fallout involving late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

Roseanne Barr called out Barack Obama for claiming Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension was ‘cancel culture.’

‘Remember when you and your wife called Bob Iger to have me fired?’ she said to the former president on X.

Obama had posted, ‘After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.’

ABC parent company Disney announced Jimmy Kimmel Live! would return to the airwaves in a statement on Monday.

Here is the full statement:

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.

The letter begins: ‘We the people must never accept government threats to our freedom of speech. Efforts by leaders to pressure artists, journalists, and companies with retaliation for their speech strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country.

‘Last week, Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air after the government threatened a private company with retaliation, marking a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation.

‘In an attempt to silence its critics, our government has resorted to threatening the livelihoods of journalists, talk show hosts, artists, creatives, and entertainers across the board. This runs counter to the values our nation was built upon, and our Constitution guarantees.

‘We know this moment is bigger than us and our industry. Teachers, government employees, law firms, researchers, universities, students and so many more are also facing direct attacks on their freedom of expression.’

‘Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country. We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power – because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.

‘This is the moment to defend free speech across our nation. We encourage all Americans to join us, along with the ACLU, in the fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights.’

In total, more than 430 movie, TV and stage stars as well as comedians, directors and writers added their names.

Jimmy Kimmel Live will return to the airwaves Tuesday night after a week-long suspension over the host’s comments on Charlie Kirk’s murder.

The show will air at 11.35pm ET on ABC, although not all stations will carry it.

Sinclair and Nexstar stations, which make up about a third of ABC’s affiliates, declared they will not be showing the program.

Episodes will be available for streaming on Hulu the next day.

Noah Centineo was the target of social media commenters accusing him of jumping on the bandwagon in regard to the ongoing situation centered around Jimmy Kimmel involving ABC and its parent company Disney.

In his social media post, Centineo showed off a screenshot signaling he had canceled his Disney+ membership. 

The actor urged his 13.6 million followers to ‘save money today’ by canceling the streaming service following their suspension of Kimmel

A schedule released by ABC revealed that actor Glen Powell will be joining Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday night for the return of his show.

Sarah McLachlan is slated as the evening’s musical guest.

Powell will be promoting his new Hulu show, Chad Powers.

Singers Olivia Rodrigo and Ariana Grande shared their support for Jimmy Kimmel by reposting SAG-AFTRA’s statement on his suspension.

‘So upset over this blatant censorship and abuse of power. I stand with Jimmy Kimmel and I stand for freedom of speech,’ Rodrigo added to her post.

The SAG-AFTRA statement condemning Kimmel’s suspension said, ‘Our society depends on freedom of expression. Suppression of free speech and retaliation for speaking out on significant issues of public concern run counter to the fundamental rights we all rely on.

‘Democracy thrives when diverse points of view are expressed. The decision to suspend airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone’s freedoms.

‘SAG-AFTRA stands with all media artists and defends their right to express their diverse points of view, and everyone’s right to hear them.’

Supporters placed a display over the 101 freeway in Hollywood, California on Tuesday that declared, ‘Pressure Works – Kimmel Is Back.’

Jimmy Kimmel posted on Instagram for the first time since his show was pulled from ABC.

He posted a tribute that many fans saw as a subtle statement on the controversy surrounding his program.

‘Missing this guy today,’ Kimmel wrote alongside a photo of himself with legendary TV producer Norman Lear, who passed away in December 2023.

Lear, best known for creating groundbreaking sitcoms like All in the Family and The Jeffersons, was a staunch defender of free speech and the First Amendment.

In an interview with Rachel Maddow on Sept 22, former VP Kamala Harris ripped into Disney’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel off the air despite her friendship with Dana Walden, the co-chairman of Disney Entertainment.

‘I am a lifelong public servant,’ but ‘I’ve worked closely with the private sector over many years,’ Harris told Maddow.

‘And I always believed that if push came to shove, those titans of industry would be guardrails for our democracy, for the importance of sustaining democratic institutions. And one by one by one, they have been silent,’ she continued.

Harris and Walden have been friends sincde 1994. Their husbands, Matt Walden and Doug Emhoff, have known each other since the 1980s, with Kamala once declaring them ‘extrodinary friends.’

Ellen DeGeneres, who is famous for being a talk show host herself, joined the slew of stars voicing their support for Kimmel and rejoicing at the announcement on Monday.

‘Cannot wait to hear @JimmyKimmel’s monologue tomorrow,’ DeGeneres wrote as she shared a screenshot of the news on Instagram — just as Kimmel’s fellow late night talk show hosts addressed the news on their own Monday monologues.

Insiders told the Daily Mail staff expect the late-night host to ‘come out swinging’ when he returns to air on Tuesday night.

The content of Kimmel’s opening monologue is being kept a secret, and it’s unclear if he will address the suspension.

But the insider has made clear that there could be consequences if Kimmel doesn’t defend himself and fight back against censorship.

Former IndyCar racer Danica Patrick, a Trump supporter who has been on Kimmel’s show before, celebrated the news that he had been suspended but late Monday said she understands the decision to bring him back.

‘Totally fine,’ she on on Instagram, responding to the latest development. ‘An employer has a choice to hire and fire and run a business.

‘I don’t think he is as funny as he used to be, but that little problem will take care of itself in time. He will either start making real jokes and not stupid distasteful emotional jabs or he won’t.

‘When I raced I never talked about politics and religion. I understood the unspoken agreement to be PC.

‘All that is ever at play, is money. And you better believe if it’s not flowing, something goes. Clock is ticking again.’

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr defended ABC affiliates refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel after his return.

‘And there it is. On Kimmel, the Democrats are engaged in nothing more than Projection and Distortion,’ Carr said on X, along with a repost of a California state senator calling for Sinclair to be broken up.

‘Projection because Democrats are the ones that spent years illegally weaponizing government to silence dissent. And it is Democrats that will do it all again—as they are openly telling you today.

‘Distortion because Democrats want to blame anything other than Disney and their local TV stations for Kimmel’s suspension. Those businesses decided that, in their view, a suspension made sense. The reporting on this is clear.’

Carr defended Sinclair and Nexstar’s refusals to air Kimmel’s show despite his return.

‘Notably, this is the first time recently that any local TV stations have pushed back on a national programmer like Disney. And that is a good thing because we want want empowered local TV stations,’ Carr said.

‘After all, local TV stations—not the national programmers—have public interest obligations, and they should be making decisions that in their view meets the needs of their local communities.’

Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg claimed that Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension was about politics and pressure from the Trump Administration.

‘It’s really important to understand that the Jimmy Kimmel news is about politics,’ Buttigieg said on social media last week.

‘This is about the president of the United States who doesn’t like that a comedian had the freedom to make fun of him, pressuring a corporation that had business before the government to make sure that he was taken off the air.’

He encouraged companies not to succumb to pressure from the White House.

‘There is something I want to say to any of the business leaders who are being dragged across one red line after the other, who are going along with it because they think it’s going to help them, or because they think it will get the Trump Administration off their back,’ he said.

‘You need to understand that this is a one-way trip. That sooner or later, if you play this game, you will have even less room for maneuver in the future.

‘They didn’t stop at the law firms. They didn’t stop at the universities. They didn’t even stop with the comedians. They are not going to stop until they have total power. And if you try to ride this tiger as a business or organizational leader, sooner or later it will eat you.’

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz slammed Donald Trump’s powerful Federal Communications Commission chairman following Jimmy Kimmel’s removal by ABC.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr earlier threatened ABC and Disney to ‘change conduct and take action’ against Kimmel following comments he made regarding Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Cruz, who has appeared on Kimmel’s show in the past for friendly interviews and segments, called Carr’s actions ‘dangerous’ as hell’ and ‘right out of Goodfellas.’

‘If the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you, the media, have said; we’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like’ — that will end up bad for conservatives,’ the Texan asserted.

Nexstar Media Group, which owns 28 ABC affiliate stations, announced it will continue to no longer air Jimmy Kimmel’s show, despite its network return.

‘We made a decision last week to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! following what ABC referred to as Mr. Kimmel’s “ill-timed and insensitive” comments at a critical time in our national discourse,’ the company said on Tuesday.

‘We stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve.

‘In the meantime, we note that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be available nationwide on multiple Disney-owned streaming products, while our stations will focus on continuing to produce local news and other programming relevant to their respective markets.’

Seth Meyers said Jimmy Kimmel’s comeback to late-night proves it is possible to stand up to ‘bullying and censorship’ from the Trump Administration.

‘It is possible to stand up to this kind of bullying and censorship. For example, Trump tried to sue the New York Times, and that suit has already been thrown out. And minutes before we started taping, we got word that our friend Jimmy Kimmel will be back on the air tomorrow,’ Meyers said.

‘There has been a massive national backlash to Trump’s crackdown on free speech, even among conservatives. I haven’t seen a poll yet. But I think, if you asked Americans if the president should be dictating what TV hosts can and can’t say, you’d get about three percent positive and,’ he said, then played a clip of Trump saying ’97 percent negative.’

Meyers insisted that making jokes about the president is not negative coverage, but rather a natural result of being the most powerful person in the world.

“Yes, comedy shows make jokes about the president,” Meyers said. “You know why? Because he’s the president. He’s the most powerful, most famous person on the planet, and in this particular case, he’s a billionaire, and his party controls everything.

‘You want us to make the exact same number of jokes about Chuck Schumer that we make about Donald Trump? The only person who would enjoy that is Chuck Schumer, and there’s no chance he’s awake at 12.37.’

The Daily Show host John Stewart reacted to Jimmy Kimmel’s return by mocking those who insisted the suspension was not a result of pressure from the Trump Administration.

‘It was rather shocking that this turnaround occurred, because I was told that the original decision to get rid of Jimmy had nothing to do with the Trump administration and their explicit FCC threat that they could remove the show the easy way or the hard way,’ Stewart said jokingly.

He also teased people who threatened to boycott ABC’s parent company, Disney, and credited them for the show’s return.

‘The campaign that you all launched, pretending that you were going to cancel Hulu while secretly racing through four seasons of Only Murders in the Building, really worked. Congratulations!

‘Wasn’t it interesting to try and figure out all the tentacles Disney has in your daily life?

‘It’s one thing to swear off cruises, but the Avengers? How is it possible that by getting rid of one company, I can’t watch Winnie-the-Pooh or Monday Night Football? Or listen to early Hilary Duff?’

The Late Show host Stephen Colbert praised Disney’s decision to bring back Jimmy Kimmel Live! and joked that his network, CBS, should do the same for him.

‘We do, like, 160 of these a year or something, and when I have the chance, it’s always nice to start the show with some good news,’ Colbert said in his monologue on Monday.

‘Just a few hours before we tape this broadcast, we got word that our long national late-nightmare is over, because Disney announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to the air on ABC tomorrow, Tuesday night.

‘This is wonderful news for my dear friend Jimmy and his amazing staff. Plus, now that Jimmy’s not being cancelled, I get to enjoy this again,’ he said as he pulled out his Emmy award.

‘Once more, I am the only martyr in late night. Wait, unless, CBS, you want to announce anything?’ Colbert joked, referring to his own show’s cancellation.

‘Still no? Right, because of the money thing? I forgot. Yeah, the money thing.’

Only 8 percent were about Democrats, according to the study by Media Research Center’s NewsBusters. In that time, Kimmel made 3,584 jokes about Trump, but only 336 about Biden.

Jimmy Kimmel‘s return to late night TV is set to be a ratings disaster after 70 ABC affiliate stations said they would not be broadcasting Tuesday’s show.

Nexstar said Tuesday morning it would not be screening Jimmy Kimmel Live! on the 38 ABC stations it owns, Variety reported.

The broadcasting conglomerate joins the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has already said it will not screen Kimmel’s comeback on the 32 ABC affiliates it owns.