Free Jimmy!

My WSJ this afternoon has a story headlined ‘Kimmel’s Late-Night Show Will Return to Air Tuesday’ stating a fact which you all know by now.

The story does not say much about how ABC came to this decision, unless you consider the following from ABC an explanation:

“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,” the company said.

The WSJ story also says this about Nexstar, a company which owns more than 20 ABC affiliated stations.

A representative for Nexstar didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on whether it would resume carrying Kimmel’s show.

Nexstar had said it’s stations would stop airing Kimmel’s show, even before ABC decided to suspend it.

What really induced ABC to put Kimmel back on the air is unknown, and I suspect always will be. More may be said by various parties, but the truth content of whatever is said will in any event be low.

Whatever the reason for ABC’s about-face, I applaud them growing a pair, if only belatedly, and I look forward to seeing Carr and Trump’s reactions to this news. I expect Kimmel’s ratings for Tuesday night’s first show back will be rather higher than they have been of late. He should send Mr. Carr a bottle of Carr’s favourite booze, at the very least.

A WSJ reader commenting on the story also mentions that Kimmel’s contract with ABC runs to May of 2026. If that is so, I would not bet much on the show being on the air in July of 2026. I alsopredict that Tuesday ratings bump I am predicting is unlikely to last.

As another commenter on this story said, this latest ABC decision is ‘a victory for free speech and negative net present value’.