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Late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday opened up about his temporary suspension from ABC last month over comments he made in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination, conceding that he was surprised to be pulled off the air for words he said were “intentionally and, I think, maliciously mischaracterized.”
In an interview on Bloomberg Screentime, Kimmel said he didn’t realize his comments had stirred so much controversy until the network announced that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would be “preempted indefinitely.”
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“I didn’t think there was a big problem,” he said. “I just saw it as distortion on the part of some of the right-wing media networks, and I aimed to correct it.”
“I have problems, like, all the time,” Kimmel added. “And it’s kind of funny, because sometimes you think, ‘Oh, this is not a problem,’ and then it turns into be a big problem, and then sometimes it goes the other way, where you think, like, ‘Uh-oh, this is gonna be a problem,’ and nobody really notices.”
Kimmel, though, made clear he did not believe he had committed any wrongdoing, telling Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw that his comments were “intentionally and, I think, maliciously mischaracterized.”
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Kimmel recalled that he spent the weekend following his suspension talking to Disney executives, including Dana Walden, the co-chair of Disney Entertainment, which he said helped him “just kind of understand where everyone was coming from.”
“I can sometimes be reactionary. I can sometimes be aggressive. And I can sometimes be unpleasant. And I think that it helped me really having those days to think about it was helpful,” Kimmel added.
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Ultimately, Kimmel’s show was suspended for just six days.
The comedian said he and Disney executives agreed on “the spirit” of what he was going to say upon his return to air but did not go over a script of his remarks.
While President Donald Trump celebrated Kimmel’s suspension and even threatened to sue ABC for bringing the show back, the comedian said he “would love to have Trump on the show for sure.” But Kimmel said he didn’t share the same interest in hosting Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission.
Carr had fiercely criticized Kimmel following his comments on conservatives’ response to the Kirk shooting, issuing a not-so-veiled threat to Disney, warning penalties could follow if the company did not take action to discipline the host.
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“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told a right-wing podcaster hours before ABC suspended Kimmel.
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The ABC host also weighed in on CBS’s announcement that it would be canceling “The Late Show” next year, currently hosted by Stephen Colbert.
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While CBS framed the call as “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” Kimmel did not seem convinced.