Hours ahead of his return to late night, Jimmy Kimmel made his first public statement since his controversial suspension by ABC—a tribute to a friend that hints at his resolve amid mounting pressure.
Kimmel posted a photo of himself alongside the late television producer Norman Lear.
“Missing this guy today,” Kimmel wrote of Lear, who died in December 2023 and with whom Kimmel collaborated on ABC’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience.
Lear revolutionized television by treating it as a platform for political and cultural commentary as much as for entertainment. Through shows like All in the Family, Maude, and Good Times, Lear used laughter as a way to spark national conversations—turning the TV set into both a mirror of American society and a catalyst for change.
Those programs were often met with heavy backlash from opposing viewpoints like the Moral Majority, whose leader, pastor Jerry Falwell, famously declared Lear “the number one enemy of the American family. (Lear later said he took great pride in that description.)
The producer’s work in championing free speech extended outside the bounds of television. In 1973, he became president of the ACLU of Southern California. During his tenure, he famously risked his booming television career to protect the right of nei-Nazis to hold a march in Illinois on the grounds that free speech covered all sides. In 1981, Lear would found his own progressive advocacy organization, People for the American Way, in an effort to protect democracy against the threat of authoritarianism.
That organization issued a blistering response to ABC’s indefinite removal of Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week, standing with Kimmel in no uncertain terms and taking aim at the corporations who had seemingly capitulated to federal pressure.
Jimmy Kimmel is set to return to Jimmy Kimmel Live! tonight for the first time since last Tuesday, though station groups Nexstar and Sinclair have said they will continue to pre-empt the show indefinitely.
Following Kimmel’s post, Lear’s producing partner Brent Miller responded. “If he were still here (physically), there’s nothing that would have made him happier than seeing you take back your stage tonight,” Miller told Kimmel in a comment. “Break a leg, I’m quite sure he will [be] there in spirit.”
