The abrupt programming decision quickly morphed into a flashpoint for free speech in America under the Trump administration.

https://archive.ph/8buhg

By John Koblin, Brooks Barnes, Benjamin Mullin and Michael M. Grynbaum
Sept. 18, 2025

Mr. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, and Dana Walden, his head of television, were also hearing from skittish advertisers and employees who had begun to receive threatening messages. When the team reviewed Mr. Kimmel’s planned remarks, they grew concerned that his monologue would only inflame the situation further.

So they made the call: “Jimmy Kimmel Live” would temporarily go dark.

That decision — the product of a spider’s web of interlocking political and financial pressures placed atop one of the country’s biggest corporations — quickly morphed into a flashpoint for free speech in America. Many Democrats, actors and comedians cried foul as right-wing activists celebrated. On a diplomatic trip in Britain, President Trump knocked Mr. Kimmel for “bad ratings” and proclaimed that ABC “should have fired him a long time ago.”