Jimmy Kimmel’s right to free speech is not up for debate
After Jimmy Kimmel was abrupted pulled from late night TV, many are questioning the government’s attempts to control it.
The Thursday, Nov. 6, episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was postponed on short notice, leaving viewers with a rerun instead.
The episode featuring “Malice” actor David Duchovny and “Stranger Things” star Joe Keery was never filmed due to a personal matter involving Jimmy Kimmel, according to someone familiar with the situation.
Viewers expecting a new episode rewatched a rerun of the Oct. 28 episode instead. Fans with tickets to the Nov. 6 taping at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles were notified about the postponement and told they would be invited to a future taping, Deadline reported.
Pop singer Madison Beer, who was scheduled to be the musical guest for the episode, acknowledged the episode’s postponement on her Instagram story.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, Jimmy Kimmel Live needed to reschedule my performance that was originally set to air tonight to a later date. I’ll share more details on timing when I can, I can’t wait for you all to see it,” Beer wrote.
It’s unclear whether the guests, Duchovny, Keery and Beer, will return to complete the originally scheduled taping.
Duchovny and Keery’s representatives did not respond to a USA TODAY request for comment.
Postponement comes after the series was suspended
The Thursday postponement marked the first time “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was halted since ABC suspended the talk show in September following outrage over remarks he made about the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk.
The six-day suspension started on Sept. 17 and followed criticism from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr regarding Kimmel’s Sept. 15 monologue. Soon after, both Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcasting Group announced they would not air the show across their ABC affiliate stations.
The show returned to ABC on Sept 23, when the comedian called critics’ response to his comments “intentionally, and I think maliciously, mischaracterized.” Kimmel emphasized that it was “never my intention to make light” of Kirk’s death.
Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk, recently revealed that she spoke with the Sinclair Broadcast Group after Kimmel’s controversial comments about her late husband.
“They asked, ‘Do you want Jimmy to give you an apology? Do you want to be on a show? How can we make it right?'” Kirk said. “Through our team, I responded. I said, ‘Tell them thank you. We received their note. This is not our issue. This is not our mess,'” she told Jesse Waters in a Fox News interview that aired Nov. 5.