Jimmy is back. But we don't know the how or why. The silence is telling.
It’s important to take a principled stand early into a news story. Otherwise you become one of 400 celebrities signing a letter calling for the reinstatement of Jimmy Kimmel just a few hours before Disney announce his return.
Signing a letter from the ACLU were celebs including Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and Jennifer Aniston.
And them there’s New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, cancelling an ABC town hall event. Maybe it’s back on now though.
But the big news story of today is that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be back on TV starting Tuesday night in the US (with Jimmy in place as host). The statement from Disney:
“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. 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.”
So far there is no statement from regional affiliates Sinclair or Nexstar on whether they will also broadcast the show. One presumes they will.
So, what changed? There’s no real clear understanding of what has been agreed upon behind the scenes. At least, not yet. I’m sure the trades will have some insight by this time tomorrow.
My assumption is that ABC used some of its leverage with the regional affiliates (who need ABC programming like the NFL) to pull them into line. A lack of a statement from either affiliate almost certainly suggests this is the case (after all, how long can it take to put out a generic statement of support… I can’t imagine either affiliate is happy about having Kimmel back on its airwaves… and Friday’s decision by Sinclair to abandon the culture war fight by not airing a Charlie Kirk special in the Kimmel slot shouldn’t be overlooked here either).
Read more: LateNighter
News Desk
Rumour has it that director George Miller is working on a Mad Max TV series called The Wasteland. It’d serve as a prequel to Fury Road. Read: Dark Horizons
Are you yet across the Peacemaker season 2 Earth X theory? Read: Polygon
Yvonne Strahovski has joined season 2 of Apple TV+ show Bad Monkey. Read: Deadline
Ken Jennings is currently on holiday in Sydney, Australia. You’ll know where he is because of all the paparazzi. Read: TV Insider
The Shining character Dick Hallorann will be a character in IT: Welcome To Derry. Read: TV Insider
Sky News Australia is reviewing its Sunday night show Freya Fires Up, after a guest appeared with bacon draped over his shirt to “protect him” from terrorists. What a dickhead. Read: SMH
Trailer Park
The trailer for TV series spin-off The Mandalorian & Grogu has been released online in a move that is in no way meant to serve as a distraction from anything negative happening at Disney right now.
Putting all of that aside, the challenge in selling this film was always going to be how they can make it not look/feel like a movie-length episode of the TV show. And I’m pretty far from convinced that they did that here. I’ll be there opening day regardless.
Robin Hood (2025) debuts on MGM+ on Nov 2.
Lazarus debuts on Prime Video Oct 22.
Bon Apetit, Your Majesty is streaming now on Netflix
Boots debuts Oct 9 on Netflix.
After impulsively joining the U.S. Marine Corps, a bullied teen finds new purpose - and unexpected brotherhood - with his motley team of fellow recruits.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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