Disney reportedly wants Jimmy Kimmel back on air but tone down his political rhetoric as talk show host continues to refuse to apologize

After Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show was pulled off-air from ABC indefinitely last week, the host and executives at Disney - which owns the network - are reportedly in conversation. 

Variety reports that Kimmel's legal representation first met with ABC leaders last Thursday, with the goal of reaching a compromise that'd allow the media personality to return to Jimmy Kimmel Live!

People with knowledge of the situation has told the media outlet that the Disney and ABC are likely to offer Kimmel a new agreement for his return.

The terms and conditions on this agreement are expected to ensure that the host tones down his political rhetorics on the show. 

Whether or not these terms are accepted by Jimmy Kimmel remains to be seen.

However, Kimmel does reportedly acknowledge that the shutdown of his show would impact all his staffers.

Jimmy, who has hosted the late-night show at ABC for more than 20 years now, joined the network in 2003.

Variety reports that the ad spending of Kimmel's show alone totaled at $51 million last year - contributing 21% to the advertising on all late-night shows. 

Jimmy Kimmel's political commentary has been a cause of concern for ABC for some time 

Not a big fan of Jimmy Kimmel, but if you think his show should be canceled for this, you’re a hack and a total fraud who should never pretend to care about free speech pic.twitter.com/FSiktbva6y

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) September 17, 2025

ABC's latest decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel's show off-air was rooted in his controversial remarks about Charlie Kirk's death last week. 

After Kimmel suggest that Kirk's shooter, Tyler Robinson, was a MAGA supporter, FCC's Brendan Carr criticized it sharply, threatening to take action against both Kimmel and the network if the former faced no consequences. 

However, this isn't the first time Jimmy Kimmel's political commentory has created friction in media.

Even before his Kirk comment, ABC has Kimmel to avoid making political remarks on his show, especially ones involving Donald Trump. 

When Jimmy appeared on Howie Mandel's podcast last week, the host addressed that the network was nervous about his jokes when Disney was pursuing Fox's purchase. Kimmel told Mandel:

"If you want to have a big audience, you don’t want to piss a lot of people off and I was pissing a lot of people off."

While the commentator has made no comments since the news of his show being axed surfaced in media, Disney has attracted a lot of criticism over its sudden dismissal of Kimmel from both right and left. 

Many of the protestors agaisnt Disney's decision to axe Jimmy Kimmel are actors from its own network.

Mark Ruffalo - who stars as Hulk's in MCU - wrote in a Threads posts that cancelling Jimmy's show would result in the company's stocks falling further, adding:

"Disney does not want to be the ones that broke America."

Pedro Pascal from Fantastic Four also defended Kimmel, writing in an Instagram post that he was "standing" with him and for defending free speech.

Tatiana Maslany, who starred in She Hulk, even encouraged her fans to cancel their Disney+ subscriptions after Kimmel's suspension.

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