Jimmy Kimmel Is Back!

I am so glad ABC has reversed its decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel's late night show. I understand that it was probably more of a business decision for them because in less than a week after Kimmel's suspension, ABC/Disney lost billions of dollars in stock sell-off (I sold my DIS shares right away) and Disney+ and Hulu subscription cancellations. It truly became a movement, and the very obvious loss of business must have outweighed the benefits of the potential merger approval by FCC.

I would also hope that Disney's CEO Bob Iger realized how bad the whole situation was for the company's and his personal reputation. As a media expert Dr.Dane S. Claussen stated in his FB post,

Thomas S. Muphy and Daniel B. Burke, who Iger worked for, were surely spinning in their graves at Iger's disintegration. Murphy and Burke had nerves of steel (not only in Wilkes-Barre), which is how they built Capital Cities/ABC into one of the world's largest media corporations, consistently profitable, and highly ethical. Then Disney bought Capital Cites/ABC.

Even though Sinclair, a hyper conservative media company that owns 38 ABC affiliates in local markets, still refuses to broadcast Kimmel's show until he apologizes to the Charlie Kirk family and makes a sizeable donation to the family and Turning Point USA, the majority of ABC viewers will be able to see Jimmy's show starting Tuesday, Sept.23. It is worth noting that Kimmel's reach online with over 20 million subscribers is far more significant than any 1.5-2 million who watch him on live TV, and those subscribers did not just sit idle. They put so much pressure on ABC and Disney with emails, phone calls, and petitions that it had to cave.

I am sure that with that kind of online following, Jimmy could have easily taken his entire staff and started his own YouTube program to a lot more success with his niche audience. There are precedents for that, starting with Bill O'Reilly and Tucker Carlson on the right and ending with Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon, and Andy Borowitz on the left.

In the worst case scenario, Kimmel could have probably sued ABC for the breach of contract as it was only recently renewed. Even though the contract probably has tons of exclusion clauses, I'm sure because of the public pressure ABC would have settled with him for an amount large enough to take care of him, his family, his 200-person staff AND to start his YouTube program. So I'm glad that albeit from the business perspective rather than principled position of protecting free speech, ABC made the right decision to reinstate the show.

For those who argue that ABC's decision to suspend Kimmel was driven by business logic rather than FCC intimidation, I highly recommend to watch the program I have embedded in the cover image of this story. It is a detailed legal analysis of how if decided to pursue it, ABC/Disney would have a strong case against the government, in the face of FCC chair, meddling with free speech and intimidating business owners into the decision the FCC would like them to take.

If you don't want to get into too much of the legalese, John Oliver's Last Week Tonight also provides excellent analysis of the whole situation.

Please go to the comments under the program. The fact that the top comments there are from viewers in Russia, Belarus, Hungary and Turkey saying "Wake up, Americans, this is how it starts" and "Welcome to the authoritarian club" should be alarming for everyone, even for our conservative friends who rejoiced at Kimmel's cancellation.

And specifically for those conservative friends: Please remember that the US law and its practice is precedent-based. Don't be surprised when the next Democratic Party president comes in and uses FCC to silence FoxNews or its particular programs like the one with Brian Kilmeade when he suggested that mentally ill homeless people should be subject to "involuntary lethal injections." It works both ways.