Disney returns 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' to ABC

[Kimmel, from A1]the heart of what it means to live in a free country.”

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A NEWS conference Monday outside the El Capitan Theatre denounced the censorship of Jimmy Kimmel after remarks he made on air.

(ROBERT GAUTHIER Los Angeles Times)

The Kimmel suspension put Disney executives, including Chief Executive Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Dana Walden, in the center of the nation’s debate over free speech.

President Trump last week celebrated what he viewed as Kimmel’s cancellation, while those on the opposite side blasted Disney for seemingly pulling the corporate rug from under one of ABC’s biggest stars for two decades. At a crowded protest outside the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on Monday, a demonstrator hoisted a handmade sign that said: “The Mouse is a Cowardly Louse.”

The late-night program has been dark since Wednesday, when the Disney-owned ABC network announced in a terse statement that it would be “preempted indefinitely.”

The move followed decisions by two major owners of ABC affiliate stations to drop the show because of Kimmel's remarks about the suspect in Kirk’s shooting death. ABC’s decision to suspend the show came about an hour before Wednesday's taping as dozens of fans waited outside the theater.

Behind the scenes, Disney’s Walden had debated with Kimmel over an appropriate response to the ballooning controversy. Walden and other Disney executives were concerned that Kimmel’s planned retort for Wednesday’s show would inflame the situation rather than “bring the temperature down,” according to two people familiar with the conversations but not authorized to comment.