Jimmy Kimmel Shares Mysterious Social Media Post Hours Before Return to Air

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Jimmy Kimmel has broken his silence.

Kinda, sorta.

Not long before his scheduled return to television on Tuesday night, Jimmy Kimmel uploaded a photo of himself with the late Norman Lear on Instagram.

“Missing this guy today,” Kimmel wrote alongside the snapshot.

Lear, who passed away in December 2023, created the iconic sitcom All in the Family and was outspoken about his support for the First Amendment.

This seems relevant at the moment, of course, because Kimmel was taken off the air by Disney executives last Wednesday in the wake of controversial remarks he made about the man who allegedly killed Charlie Kirk.

“The MAGA Gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said during the September 15 episode of his show, referring to Tyler Robinson.

If you parse those words, the host is simply referring to reaction from various Republicans — not to Kirk or even really to Robinson as individuals.

And if you understand the First Amendment, you’ll also understand why such parsing isn’t even necessary.

The government is REALLY not supposed to pressure networks to remove television personalities due to any views they express.

During an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on December 17, 2023, meanwhile, the host grew emotional during in his tribute to Lear, calling him “not only a giant in the world of television, but a great man who was one of the most important and impressive people I ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

“He changed situation comedy in the best possible way,” Kimmel added of the TV writer. “He taught us so much about so many serious things, always making us laugh while he did it, and everyone who works in or even watches television owes him a great debt.

“Especially me.”

On Monday, the Walt Disney Company issued a statement confirming that the talk show will return on Tuesday, September 23.

None of us can wait to see what Kimmel has to say about the situation.

“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive,” the statement read, continuing as follows:

“We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”

It’s also worth noting Nexstar and Sinclair (the broadcasting company that makes up the nation’s largest ABC affiliate group) announced last week they will preempt the show on their affiliate stations.

Following the news of the show’s return, both declared they will continue preempting the broadcast.

Jimmy Kimmel Shares Mysterious Social Media Post Hours Before Return to Air was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.