More than 400 Hollywood celebrities, including Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and Joaquin Phoenix, are demanding the return of Jimmy Kimmel Live. In the open letter, released by the American Civil Liberties Union, the signatories uphold that the talk show’s cancellation is a direct hit on free speech in the United States.
For the uninitiated, Jimmy Kimmel Live was cancelled indefinitely last week after the show’s host made some comments on the death of conservative political activist, Charlie Kirk.
On September 10, 2025, Kirk was assassinated while he was addressing the attendees at Utah Valley University. His death invited a lot of debate on multiple grounds, but mostly political.
One of the first people to talk about him was Jimmy Kimmel during his monologue in the November 11, 2025, episode of his show. While highlighting the largely politically divided nature of Los Angeles, Kimmel highlighted that Kirk’s death had exaggerated it. He also spoke about the wide range of reactions his death had received from people from all political spectrums, some of which he did not understand.
Kimmel then went on to discuss the response the incident had received from those in positions of power. He blamed President Donald Trump for exploiting the situation and creating further divide among the citizens rather than unifying them.
He noted how Trump blamed the Democrats for their conversations surrounding the incident. In contrast, he highlighted that former world leaders, such as Biden and Obama, had made efforts to bring everyone together. While pulling up screenshots of posts made by these political leaders, Kimmel said:
“With all these terrible things happening, you would think that our president would at least attempt to bring us together, but he didn’t. President Obama did. President Biden did. Presidents Bush and Clinton did. President Trump did not.”
Soon after Kimmel made these comments, he received flak from the audience, especially from conservatives. By September 15, 2025, several news outlets had made public that the show was cancelled and would not return for the foreseeable future.
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