More than 400 Hollywood stars cosigned a letter published by the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday condemning ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live! over on-air comments Jimmy Kimmel made about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing.
The open letter was signed by some of Hollywood’s biggest names, including Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Robert DeNiro, Ben Stiller, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. Hours after it was published, Disney, which owns ABC, announced that the show will return to the air on Tuesday.
“We the people must never accept government threats to our freedom of speech,” their letter begins. “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.”
The decision to take Kimmel off the air, which came after the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr threatened to punish ABC and its parent company Disney over the remarks, was “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation,” the letter states.
“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,” the letter states. “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.”
It adds: “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.”
How we got here
Jennifer Aniston on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in 2021. (Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Images)
It comes less than a week after ABC announced that it was pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air “indefinitely” after Carr criticized comments Kimmel had made earlier this week about the motives of Kirk’s alleged killer.
During his monologue on Sept. 15, Kimmel said that President Trump’s supporters were trying to “score political points” by portraying Kirk’s accused killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, as a left-wing radical, and suggested Robinson was “one of them.”
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” Carr said on a right-wing podcast before the suspension was announced. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” Nexstar, a major operator of ABC-affiliated stations, said it would not broadcast Jimmy Kimmel Live! “for the foreseeable future.”
Sinclair, the largest operator of ABC affiliates, said in a statement that it would not lift the suspension “until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability.” It also called for Kimmel to make a “direct apology” and “meaningful personal donation” to the Kirk family and Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organization Kirk cofounded.
In its statement announcing Kimmel’s return, Disney said that it “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,” Disney said. “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.”
People were boycotting Disney in protest
A demonstrator holds a sign in response to the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show outside of Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif., on Sept. 18. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
Critics of ABC’s decision had been been calling for a boycott against Disney, including some actors and directors featured in Disney shows and movies.
Tatiana Maslany, star of Marvel’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, which aired on Disney+, urged her Instagram followers to “cancel your @disneyplus @hulu @espn subscriptions!”
Damon Lindelof, the creator of Lost, expressed his solidarity with Kimmel and said that if his suspension is not lifted, “I can’t in good conscience work for the company that imposed it.”
Marisa Tomei, who starred in Disney’s Avengers, reposted a call to “unsubscribe and boycott” Disney platforms.
The hashtags #BoycottDisney and #BoycottABCNetwork continued to trend online over the weekend, with participants posting screengrabs of their canceled subscriptions to social media.
Howard Stern and Ted Cruz agree: U.S. government should not get involved
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, during a hearing on Capitol Hill on Sept. 16. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)
Howard Stern, Sirius XM radio host and Kimmel’s friend, said on his show Monday that he also planned to cancel his subscription to Disney+ to boycott ABC’s parent company.
“You can’t support this kind of a move,” Stern said. “I don’t care whether you like Jimmy or not. It’s about freedom of speech. If ABC wanted to fire Jimmy because they didn’t like him, or he had low ratings — they didn’t want to fire him. They’re being pressured by the United States government. We can’t have that, not if we’re going to have a democracy.”
Meanwhile, several prominent Trump supporters, including Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, have spoken out against the FCC.
“I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired,” Cruz said on his podcast Friday. “But let me tell you, 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.
“I think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying, ‘We’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t,’” Cruz added. “And it might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel, but when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it.”
What was happening behind the scenes?
A demonstrator holds a sign outside Kimmel’s studio in Los Angeles on Sept. 18. (Damian Dovarganes/AP)
CNN reported over the weekend that top executives at Disney made the decision to pull Kimmel’s show as he was preparing to deliver a monologue addressing the right-wing backlash to his remarks.
“It was then that Disney executives had conversations with Kimmel about ‘taking down the temperature’ of his monologue,” CNN reported. “Nexstar announced its plan to pull Kimmel’s show at the same time. That’s when Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment Cochair Dana Walden made the decision to preempt the show indefinitely — in hopes of protecting Kimmel and the Disney brand from accelerating the controversy.”
According to CNN, Disney employees and members of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! staff had received death threats following Carr’s remarks.
Kimmel himself has not spoken publicly about the suspension or his return to air.
His current contract with ABC runs through May 2026.
