JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! Until this week, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” aired weeknights. White. (Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Images) JIMMY KIMMEL
ABC via Getty Images
The membership of the Television Critics Association (TCA) issued a statement today condemning ABC’s indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which is seen by many as the latest in a series of actions aimed at silencing critics of the Trump administration.
In a press release, the organization says, “The Walt Disney Company’s capitulation to the demands of the FCC chair this week represents a wanton disregard of the First Amendment’s guarantee to a right for people and the press to speak without government retribution.”
The group also announced that its membership, “stands with the Writers Guild of America (WGA), which said in a statement it is ‘united in opposition to anyone who uses their power and influence to silence the voices of writers, or anyone who speaks in dissent,” and SAG-AFTRA, which said this “is the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone’s freedoms.’”
Kimmel’s suspension comes two months after CBS announced The Late Show With Stephen Colbert‘s cancellation as Paramount Global awaited the FCC’s ruling on a merger with Skydance, and is the latest example of the Trump administration’s hostility to a free press, including removing the Associated Press from the White House press pool, and Congress defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The TCA statement goes on to say, “The government attempting to punish creatives, writers, and/or journalists for speech that officials do not like is authoritarianism. Corporations that profit from the words of television stars, writers, and journalists must defend their employees from governmental pressure, which is different from setting their own creative and editorial standards.”
A nonprofit organization founded in 1978, the TCA’s goal is, “to increase the public’s understanding of television; to improve television as an important element in American life and culture; and to encourage activity that adds to the value of television as a communications medium.” Its nearly 250 members are professional journalists — critics, reporters, and editors — who cover television in the United States and Canada.
Via coverage of the television industry, TCA members reach tens of millions of consumers each week and are experts within the industry. The prestigious organization honors outstanding achievements in television and enduring contributions to the medium’s heritage through the TCA Awards each year. For additional information about TCA, visit www.tvcritics.org; Facebook; Instagram, X, YouTube, TikTok and Bluesky.