“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” Disney, ABC’s parent company, said in an official statement announcing the return. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.”
Before this, there had been a lot of uncertainty as to when the show would resume — or if it would even come back at all. Jimmy Kimmel Live! reportedly employs around 200 to 250 people, and after out-of-work staffers were seen leaving the show’s Hollywood studio with what appeared to be equipment and belongings last week, one staff member spoke out to express serious concerns about the risk of major job losses.
While the future of many jobs remained in limbo, a source told CNN on Sept. 20 that staffers would continue to be paid for the time being. And now, it sounds like the Kimmel crew is breathing a collective sigh of relief.
A Kimmel staffer told People on Monday that, around the same time that Disney’s statement went public, the show’s employees “received an email from the executive producer with the good news.” They said that the wording of the internal message was “different” from that of the public comment from Disney, revealing: “It was short and to the point. Just sharing the good news and telling us to come to work tomorrow.”
Notably, it sounds like a lot of staff behind the scenes were not expecting the show to come back so soon, but they’re now “overjoyed” by the return. “Relief and joy across the board,” the staffer said, adding that they “can’t wait” to see Jimmy’s monologue for the comeback show.
Well, we’ll certainly be tuned in. Jimmy Kimmel Live! will air tonight on ABC at its usual time of 11:35 p.m. ET, 10.35 p.m. CT, and 11.35 p.m. PT.