The Return of Jimmy Kimmel | The American Spectator

Well, that didn’t take long.

Late Monday afternoon came this from ABC/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.

Whatever else this means, it is recognition of the reality that perceived censorship of television personalities does not play well with the American public. The hard fact is that, however stupid Kimmel’s remarks were — and they were stupid — the audience for his show was still there and probably then some, the latter presumably due to all the publicity revolving around those remarks. (RELATED: Jimmy Kimmel’s Pious Death Spiral)

It shouldn’t be rocket science to understand that any kind of joke revolving around the assassination of a seriously loved public figure like Charlie Kirk was simply not going to go over well with those millions of Americans who were Charlie fans. Many of those Americans are also known as “the audience.”

It should also be seriously clear that in American culture — whether we’re talking about the audience of a TV show or voters showing up to vote — that Americans are decidedly determined to make the decisions for themselves on what to watch or who to vote for. (RELATED: Pull ABC’s Broadcast License? After the Last Few Days? Hell, Yes!)

In this case, no one is going to tell Americans who or what they can or cannot watch on television. Whether that means Jimmy Kimmel or anybody else. That would be why, of course, entrepreneurs have gone to great lengths to ensure Americans have hundreds of choices as to what they want to watch on TV or pull up on their computer screens. Whether they get to watch, as it were, cable news on current events, sports, or reruns of ancient TV sitcoms, or some cooking show is their call.

And so, the “fire Jimmy Kimmel” kerfuffle has, for now at least, come to an end. He is set to be back on the air.

Will he last? That is a decision for the American television audience to make. And you can be sure, they will make that decision, one way or another.

Stay tuned.

READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord:

Three Cheers for Erika Kirk

The Legacy of Charlie Kirk

The Corruption of the Democratic Party