Transcription
It's just been announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live will return to our air tomorrow last week. The company, you may remember, pulled the late night talk show after pressure from the FCC about comments that he made about conservative influencer Charlie Kirks. Disney is bringing him back on the air tomorrow. Oh, that's got to hurt. Well, look at that. It appears that ABC have reversed course. I wonder what had them change their tune.
Guys, Hulu is so desperate to keep people from canceling that they are offering a discount when you go to cancel. So many people have been canceling their Hulu and Disney Plus subscriptions that the site is literally crashing. As a parent, do you know how excited I am to never have to give Disney another dime of my money? Like we will not be silenced. We will not be intimidated. And we will not stop fighting until we defeat fascism in this country. That's right. Don't ever get it twisted. Where you spend your money matters.
We keep Live set to come back tomorrow after being suspended last week, proving that despite the desperate effort from the Trump administration to control the narrative, the people have made themselves heard. ABC officially announced that after "thoughtful conversations with Kimmel," they will reinstate the show. Disney is bringing him back on the air tomorrow. Uh, ABC says in a statement that "We made the decision last week to suspend production to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment, but now after having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, the ABC says, 'We reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.'" So Kimmel's getting back to work. Wow.
Uh, Brian, that is significant, especially given that some of the players outside of Disney, in a corporate setting like NextStar and Sinclair, they essentially have deals that allowed them to preempt his show, and that's part of the reason that it was suspended. Do we know how they might react to this? We don't. And that becomes the big question now. Will these local station affiliates choose to air Jimmy Kimmel Live, or will they continue to protest the comedian even though the network is bringing him back nationwide?
ABC does gently chastise Kimmel in this statement. The statement says, quote, "The decision to suspend him. We made it because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive." So, they're very gently saying they disagreed with Kimmel last week, but obviously they're bringing it back as of tomorrow. Now, the move follows intense backlash from entertainers, media unions, civil liberty groups, and large public protests both in Hollywood and across the country. And if there's one person this is bound to annoy more than that one dude, you know, on Twitter with the profile picture extra close on his Under Armour sunglasses, it's Donald Trump, who championed this suspension. He celebrated ABC's decision to muzzle one of their most notable hosts, all while using the moment to rail against other late-night hosts, basically warning them that they could be next. He also said at one point, Phil, that he basically believes broadcasters and that regulators should consider taking broadcasters' licenses away if they have late-night hosts on their programs who criticize him. Listen to what he told reporters just a few moments ago. "When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that's all they do. If you go back, I guess they haven't had a conservative on in years or something, somebody said, but when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. License. They're not allowed to do that."
Few hours ago, um, this new cover of The New Yorker came out. Um, it's a tiny hand in a big suit holding a TV remote. Now, while nobody thinks this is down to anything other than their bottom line being threatened, the reinstatement does send a message that I think will galvanize those adamant in their fight against this authoritarian regime. Public outcry, outrage, protests, industry condemnation, it still matters, right? It suggests that pressure from citizens, artists, and media doesn't always yield to authoritarian impulses. That in itself, it's kind of a check on power.
Tell us what you think about what happened last night to Jimmy Kimmel. Well, this is misery and, uh, in the world of somebody who is an authoritarian, maybe a dictatorship, sooner or later, everyone is going to be touched. But this is me. For 30 years, I did this for a living. So I see this happen. They took care of Colbert. That was rude. That was inexcusable. The man deserves a great deal of credit. He's in the Hall of Fame nine times. And to be manipulated like that because the Ellison family didn't want to trouble Donald Trump with this move. So they got rid of him. Not only got rid of him, got rid of the whole franchise. You're not going to have to worry about anything, Larry. It's all gone. It's fine. Good night. And then my good friend Jimmy Kimmel. I, you know, I just, uh, I feel bad about this because, uh, we all see where this is going, correct? It's managed media, and, uh, it's no good. It's silly. It's ridiculous. And you can't go around firing somebody because you're fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That's just not how this works.
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. 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. And not just in Hollywood, right? But from the ACLU to unions and even ABC affiliates, they make themselves heard in the face of retaliation. Not just from employers, but from this administration.
One day, the history of the time we're living through is going to be written. And when it is, I'm not sure it's those in this administration who are even going to come off the worst. Now, don't get me wrong, they're going to come off terribly. But history is also going to remember the cowards who definitely knew better but still let things happen, whether it was for money, convenience, or just comfort. And I know this is something of a tough sell, and it can be a bit of anathema to risk-averse business leaders, but I will say this. If we've learned nothing else from this administration's second term so far, and I don't think we have, is that giving the bully your lunch money doesn't make him go away. It just makes him come back hungrier each time. They are never going to stop. They've literally said that openly.
After Kimmel's suspension, Trump posted, "That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC." Now, the reinstatement also undercuts the idea that Kimmel's show was only under threat because of ratings when it couldn't be further from the truth. It just reiterates that it was a political decision, and the very same self-professed bastions of free speech were cheering on censorship. In fact, they're inviting it. But ABC reversing course shows that advocacy works. More broadly, this should signal to other media companies that bending the knee to this administration, well, it has public consequences.
The big story is that Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC after pressure from the FCC, leaving everyone thinking WTF. [Applause] This morning I woke up to a hundred text messages from my dad saying, "I'm sorry they canceled your show." I go, "That's not me. That's Jimmy Kimmel." Uh, but to be honest with you all, I, I don't know what's going on. Uh, and, and no one does. But I, I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he's a decent, funny, and loving guy, and I hope he comes back. [Applause] Yeah, a lot of people are worried that we won't keep saying what we want to say or that we'll be censored, but I'm going to cover the president's trip to the UK just like I normally would. It sets a dangerous precedent. I think that if the government can control the media, then we slip dangerously into fascism. [Applause] I will see you at the White House on November 10th.
That when Donald Trump tries to send a message, when he tries to send a message by silencing Jimmy Kimmel, he is trying to send a message to everybody. Watch what you say. So, tonight, yeah, Jimmy Kimmel Live returning. It's more than a late-night victory. It's proof that even in an environment of regulatory threats and political intimidation, voices still matter. Your voice still matters. Advocacy matters. Protests matter. Where you spend your money matters. Love this video. Support independent media and unlock exclusive content. Ad-free videos and custom emojis by becoming a paid member of our YouTube channel today. You can also gift memberships to others. Let's keep growing together. [Music]