Late night host Jimmy Kimmel will be back over airwaves on ABC Tuesday night, although some local television affiliates still won鈥檛 carry Jimmy Kimmel Live! over his comments made last Monday about the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in Utah Sept. 10.
In Kimmel鈥檚 week off the air, some GOP elected officials have broken with the Trump administration over comments made by President Donald Trump鈥檚 chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
鈥淛immy Kimmel, I think, originally got canceled because he wasn鈥檛 funny, he said something offensive, and his ratings were low,鈥� U.S. Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) said Monday. 鈥淗owever, the FCC chairman also made some intimidating comments on a podcast, that was also inappropriate.鈥�
Republican U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas and Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania issued similar comments last week and over the weekend.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think the government should intervene in prohibiting anybody from saying what they want, no matter how inappropriate or ugly it is,鈥� Husted told reporters.
Kirk, who was 31, founded Turning Point USA, which pushes for conservative politics at high schools and colleges. Federal and state officials allege he was shot and killed by 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who was arrested two weeks ago and charged last Tuesday.
In an on-air monologue, Kimmel said Trump鈥檚 allies were 鈥渢rying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.鈥� At that time, investigators had released little about what Robinson鈥檚 motive may have been.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr then told conservative commentator Benny Johnson the government could 鈥渄o this the easy way or the hard way,鈥� insinuating that if ABC did not take action against Kimmel, the government would. The FCC licenses most broadcast stations in the country.
Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group, two major owners of local television stations, threatened to take Kimmel鈥檚 show off air indefinitely shortly after. That came before Disney, which owns the ABC network, yanked the show for the week.
Although ABC will return to airing Kimmel鈥檚 show Tuesday, Nexstar and Sinclair have each said they still plan to preempt the program. That includes stations in Columbus, Dayton, Youngstown and Steubenville/Wheeling, WV. Both need to get the green light from federal regulators, , on mergers and acquisitions.
