Jimmy Kimmel’s tenure as a late-night host on ABC is hanging by a thread after a 22-year run at the Disney-owned network, but the involuntary hiatus isn’t the first time the House of Mouse unceremoniously gave the hook to a star after outrage.
This time the outrage over that sparked Kimmel’s removal is coming from the right.
The comedian, whose eponymous show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” debuted on ABC in 2003, faces an uncertain future at the network after he claimed the gunman who killed conservative icon Charlie Kirk was a MAGA supporter — a false claim that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called “some of the sickest conduct possible.”
But previously, the media giant has been quick to give the hook to stars who offended liberal sensibilities.
The highest profile targets were Roseanne Barr in 2018, “Mandalorian” star Gina Carano in 2021 — and even an ESPN announcer named Robert Lee, who was suddenly pulled from calling a 2017 University of Virginia game because he shares a name with the Confederate Civil War general.
Barr was cut loose from her own self-titled sitcom by ABC over a tweet perceived by many as racist, despite massive ratings for the revival of the ’80s and ’90s smash-hit series “Roseanne.”
Twenty years after the original series’ run concluded, ABC picked up the show for a 10th season, which was picked up for an 11th season after a single episode, which drew over 27 million viewers.
But the network changed its plans after a post on social media in which Barr compared Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to a “cross between the Muslim Brotherhood and a ‘Planet of the Apes’ actor.”
Barr later apologized for her “ill-worded” tweet and said “I wish I worded it better,” saying she didn’t know Jarrett was black.
On Thursday, Barr clapped back at former President Barack Obama when he tweeted that the Trump administration, “after years of complaining about cancel culture” has “taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”
She wrote, “Remember when you and your wife called Bob Iger to have me fired?” in a response viewed more than 3 million times.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” by comparison, averaged less than 2 million viewers per show, and the host has refused to apologize to Kirk’s family.
Here’s the latest on Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension after Charlie Kirk comments
Disney also sparked backlash for firing actress Gina Carano, who sued Disney in 2021.
She sued — with the financial backing of Elon Musk — after she was axed from the Disney+ Star Wars TV series for social media posts comparing conservatives in Hollywood to Holocaust victims and making fun of people who wore masks during the pandemic.
She was seeking a court to compel Disney-owned Lucasfilm to reinstate her on the series or compensate her at least $75,000 in the suit.
It was settled out of court under unknown terms, though Carano never returned to the show.
Kimmel’s direct timeslot predecessor, comedian Bill Maher, was another ex-ABCer who got the ax for an ill-timed hot take.
Maher was canned from his long-running ABC talk show “Politically Incorrect” in 2022 when advertisers started jumping ship after he made controversial comments just six days after the 9/11 attacks.
On a Sept. 17, 2001 episode, Maher argued that the terrorists involved in the plot were “not cowardly,” instead saying “We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, [it’s] not cowardly.”
Maher apologized, explaining his “cowardly” quip was aimed at US military policy, as opposed to the soldiers themselves.
But the damage was already done, the show was canceled the following June, however ABC claimed it was due to declining ratings as opposed to the controversy.
The show was replaced in the network’s lineup by “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in January 2003.
