FILE PHOTO: Jimmy Kimmel speaks at a ceremony in which 91-year-old iconic comedy legend and actor Carol Burnett marks her hands and feet in cement, at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd in Los Angeles, California , U.S. June 20, 2024.
REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
New York- and California-based groups representing writers are backing “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in what they see as a defense not of a comedy show but the United States Constitution.
The Dramatists Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America East and West issued statements condemning The Federal Communications Commission and the American Broadcasting Company regarding the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The Dramatists Guild and Writers Guild of America East, both based in New York, as well as the Los Angeles-based Writers Guild of America West said they support the Kimmel, the show’s writers and the show, which is done in California.
“We condemn any and all threats against freedom of speech made by the current administration and the FCC chair,” the Dramatists Guild Foundation said in a written statement.
The Guild condemned FCC threats to pull ABC’s broadcasting license because “they don’t like what was said on the public airwaves” as well as a “major media company” choosing to “bow down to such an abuse of authority. “
The Dramatists Guild said it is “built on the principle of the writers’ full creative freedom and agency” as well as the “1st Amendment rights guaranteed to everyone in the Constitution.”
The Writers Guild of America East and West said they oppose “the abuse of governmental power” as well as “acts of corporate cowardice.”
“The right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other – to disturb, even – is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people,” the two Guilds said in a statement. “If free speech applied only to ideas we like, we needn’t have bothered to write it into the Constitution.”
The Writers Guilds added, “As for our employers, our words have made you rich,” adding, “Silencing us impoverishes the whole world.”
ABC suspended the show indefinitely after Kimmel commented regarding the MAGA movement and the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened ABC for comments Kimmel made during his monologue that Carr said were not in the public interest, as required for broadcast licensees.
Carr said the FCC has a “strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading misinformation.”
He said Kimmel “appeared to be making an intentional effort to mislead the public that Kirk’s assassin was a right-wing Trump supporter.”
Nexstar ABC affiliate owner said it would not broadcast the program for the “foreseeable future,” triggering ABC’s decision to suspend the program.
The hour-long show, which debuted in 2003, was suspended after more than 3,500 episodes including some shot in Kimmel’s home during the Covid pandemic.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the second longest running late-night TV show, based on a host, following only The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
The show, which is not broadcast live despite its name, is recorded in front of an audience earlier in the day and then broadcast.