In 2021, Jimmy Kimmel called Texas Sen. Ted Cruz a “moist, gelatinous tubeworm whose elastic-band pants are filled with an inky discharge every time he speaks.”
Imagine then that Cruz’s comments, particularly his riff on Goodfellas, earlier Friday concerning Disney’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel could help pave the way for Disney to bring the late-night host back to ABC.
Disney and Kimmel are talking; discussions were held Thursday and Deadline understands more conversations were taking place today.
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Disney is clearly in a difficult situation. They will likely lose the talent community if they don’t allow Kimmel back on the air, and many liberals will continue to cancel their Hulu and Disney+ subscriptions and scratch their annual trips to Walt Disney World.
But if they return Kimmel to ABC without a full-throated apology over his comments about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer, which the comedian is seemingly unwilling to give, MAGA supporters will be apoplectic and rail against the corporation in a way that could make the “Don’t Say Gay” issue seem quaint.
There are plenty of people who believe that Kimmel shouldn’t apologize, that what he said was taken out of context, amplified by the right-wing media, and merely a stalking horse to allow FCC chair Brendan Carr to threaten Disney, knowing full well it will have NFL-shaped business in front of the Trump administration, and embolden right-leaning local station groups that similarly are trying to complete their own multibillion-dollar deals that require legislative changes.
But some insiders believe that the Mouse House could take cover provided by the likes of Cruz, Mike Pence, Tucker Carlson and the editorial board of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal.
Cruz today said Carr, who he stressed he likes, was using tactics “right out of Goodfellas.” Speaking on his Verdict podcast, he said that firing Kimmel would mean that Democrats, when they next enter the White House, could use the precedent to silence conservatives.
“They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly, and that is dangerous,” he said. “It might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel. But when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it.”
Cruz and Kimmel have sparred over the years, but Cruz also appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2016 and played the comedian in a 1-on-1 basketball game – nicknamed the Blobfish Basketball Classic – in 2018.
Cruz is also not just any Republican senator; he is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, the body that has oversight over the FCC.
Former Vice President Mike Pence also entered the debate. He said he “would have preferred that the chairman of the FCC had not weighed in.”
Similarly, the WSJ came out against the move. In an opinion column, the paper’s editorial staff wrote, “The political cycle of using government to punish opponents is taking the country into dark corners that will result in less freedom, and less free speech, for all sides.”
“Kimmel’s comments Monday associating Charlie Kirk’s killer with the ‘MAGA gang’ were false, callous and stupid. But they weren’t inciting violence, and in a free society they shouldn’t be cause for the government to push someone off the airwaves. Compared to the malevolent garbage on social media about Kirk and his killer, Mr. Kimmel’s words were only mildly offensive,” it added.
Even Carlson has warned about the death of free speech. Speaking a day before the Kimmel news, the former Fox News host said, “You hope Charlie Kirk’s death won’t be used by a group we now call bad actors to create a society that was the opposite of the one he worked to build.”
Kimmel’s former Man Show co-host Adam Carolla, who has leaned right with his politics, also defended his friend.
“I know Jimmy to be a very good guy and a generous guy,” he said on his podcast. “We disagree politically, but who cares? We disagree on pizza toppings as well, but it doesn’t mean we don’t talk.”
All of this comes as Disney tries to find the best route forward. There is a growing sense of optimism within Disney that they will navigate their way out of this situation, but it’s not clear what that looks like for Kimmel, who is keen not to put his entire staff out of work, particularly so soon after the writers and actors strike shut them down in 2023.
Kimmel isn’t speaking, but some others in his orbit are. David Letterman, who knows a thing or two about taking on his corporate owners in late-night, said Thursday that he received a text from Kimmel and he joked he was “sitting up in bed taking nourishment.” “He’s going to be fine,” he added. Carolla said he also received a message from Kimmel, saying it was “strange times out here.”
Bill Simmons, an old friend of Kimmel’s who worked on JKL! in the early years (and shares a manager in James “Babydoll” Dixon), talked about the situation during the opening 13 minutes of his eponymous podcast. He said he had not talked to Kimmel. But he became more optimistic over the last day or two that Disney may find a way to bring him back on the air.
“There was such a groundswell against Disney this week that I actually went from thinking there was no chance this show was going to come back. I thought Jimmy, rightfully so, was just going to dig in and maybe that was going to be it,” he said. “But maybe this flips. Maybe what Disney is realizing is that at some point you’ve got to stand for something. At some point, you’ve got to stand by a person who has been one of the best people you’ve had for 20 plus years … all he’s done to elevate your company, who has come through time and time again in all these different ways.”
Simmons may not have talked to Kimmel directly when he said that, but as someone who has known him for nearly 25 years, he is likely better placed at reading the room than many commentators.
Kimmel and Disney are unlikely to share any updates over the weekend, unless things go horribly wrong, so Steve Harvey may be back with some more repeats of Celebrity Family Feud next week in ABC’s 11:35 p.m. slot. But this will get settled one way or the other soon.