Well, it looks like the Nazis at ABC/Disney have backed down, at least for now. Jimmy Kimmel has been un-suspended, which means that America can look forward to a historic late-night monologue tomorrow. (We hope Jimmy hasn't agreed to apologize or anything to get back on the air. That would be distinctly terrible.)
Our two cents: It's interesting that they waited until the day after Sunday's lalapalooza and canonization in Arizona to reverse themselves. And let's not delude ourselves into thinking that the corporation bearing the name of a guy who testified as a friendly witness to HUAC in 1947 has suddenly started caring about free speech. Nope, they care about money — and wow, did they take it in the shorts over the last week.
Estimates are that they lost $4 billion in stock value (we'll see what the company reports), and so many people canceled their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions that their website crashed. It used to be MAGA types who were railing at Walt's world for being "woke." Now, they've made everybody else so angry that they were facing an existential crisis.
So, please, everyone, don't rush to reinstate your ABC/Disney subscriptions or un-cancel your Magic Kingdom vacation or cruise. Let's wait and see what Kimmel has to say tomorrow night, and, more specifically, what Brendan Carr's reaction is. This is a victory for our economic clout, but we're still in dangerous waters here.
Yesterday we posted about the Smothers Brothers, and the hot water they got into over at CBS. Today we're reminded that late-night controversy also has a predecessor in Jack Paar, who walked off The Tonight Show in 1960 after NBC censors blocked him from telling a toilet joke. (Seriously.) The contrast with today is that it was Paar who was in the driver's seat. When he ended his protest three weeks later, he walked onstage to deliver his monologue. "As I was saying..."
Classic. Wonderful. We cats PURR.
(UPDATE: Sinclair Broadcast Group has responded to the un-suspension, stamping their feet and screaming that they will not air Kimmel on their 38 local stations. Good luck to your local advertisers, then. Hey, here's a thought: If you have a Sinclair station in your area, maybe watch what they show instead and contact each of the companies whose commercials you see — and read 'em the riot act. We cats PURR.)
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