Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show is set to return to air on Tuesday after Disney reversed its decision to suspend the programme indefinitely, following a boycott campaign that late-night hosts say forced the company to back down.
Stephen Colbert credited the public backlash, noting that searches for cancelling Disney+ and Hulu spiked. 'Disney put Kimmel back on because you, the American people, were upset,' he said on Monday night.
Jon Stewart joked that the boycott saw people 'pretending that you were going to cancel Hulu while secretly racing through four seasons of Only Murders in the Building.' Seth Meyers pointed to 'massive national backlash to Trump’s crackdown on free speech, even among conservatives'.
Disney said it had 'spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy' and decided to return the show. The suspension had come after FCC chair Brendan Carr threatened action against outlets airing Kimmel's comments about a shooting.
However, some stations will still pre-empt the show. Sinclair Broadcast Group said it would not air Jimmy Kimmel Live! on its ABC affiliates, replacing it with news programming. Nexstar also said it would continue to pre-empt the programme.
