The View cohosts are finally addressing Jimmy Kimmel’s show suspension after two episodes of silence.
The Monday, September 22, episode of the talk show opened with Whoopi Goldberg saying, “Did y’all really think we weren’t going to talk about Jimmy Kimmel? I mean, have you watched the show over the last 29 seasons? No one silences us.”
“When the news broke last week about Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, we took a breath to see if Jimmy was going to say anything about it first,” Goldberg continued, per Variety. “You cannot like a show and it can go off the air. Someone can say something they shouldn’t and get taken off the air. But the government cannot apply pressure to force someone to be silenced.”
Ana Navarro noted that she doesn’t “understand how in this country, where the First Amendment was made to the Constitution to guarantee freedom of the press and freedom of speech, how the government itself is using its weight and power to bully and scare people into silence.”
Why ‘The View’ Stayed Silent About Jimmy Kimmel Controversy
Alyssa Farah Griffin, meanwhile, added that the First Amendment “is the first for a reason, because you need to be able to hold those in power accountable.”
Goldberg concluded the group’s message by noting that “we talk about freedom of speech a lot because we are always in somebody’s mess because somebody has decided that we have said something that’s offensive.” She added, “But we fight for everybody’s right to have freedom of speech because it means my speech is free, it means your speech is free.”
News broke on Wednesday, September 17, that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be taken off air following the host’s comments about conservative political activist Charlie Kirk and accused killer Tyler Robinson. (Kirk died at age 31 after he was shot at a Utah Valley University event on September 10.)
“Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be preempted indefinitely,” an ABC spokesperson confirmed to Us Weekly at the time.
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The move came after Nexstar Media, which owns multiple TV stations, reportedly threatened to axe the show. The company told Variety in a statement on Wednesday that they “strongly” objected to “recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk.” Us reached out to Kimmel for comment.
One day later, FCC chairman Brendan Carr suggested that the FCC look into The View.
“When you look at these other TV shows, what’s interesting is the FCC does have a rule called the equal opportunity rule. But there’s an exception to that rule called the bona fide news exception, which means if you are a bona fide news program, you don’t have to abide by the equal opportunity rule.” Carr said on a radio show on Thursday, September 18, per Variety.
Carr continued, “Over the years, the FCC has developed a body of case law on that and has suggested that most of these late night shows, other than SNL, are bona fide news programs. Potentially I would assume you can make the argument that The View is a bona fide news show, but I’m not so sure about that, and I think it’s worthwhile to have the FCC look into whether The View and some of the programs that you have still qualify as bona fide news programs and therefore exempt from the equal opportunity regime that Congress has put in place.”
The equal opportunity rule, also known as the equal time rule, states that broadcasters who feature political candidates must give time to their rivals upon request. Newscasts and interview programs, however, are exempt from the rule.
The episode of The View that aired on Friday, September 19 — and one day after Carr’s comments — was pretaped earlier in the week. Us exclusively learned that The View was not given any guidance by ABC to avoid discussing the situation on air.
