The View Breaks Silence on Jimmy Kimmel Suspension as ABC Reinstates Host

On Monday, The View opened with a pivot to a late-night topic that had dominated media chatter: Jimmy Kimmel's suspension and ABC's response. Whoopi Goldberg opened the program with a reference to the show's long run, asking, "Did y’all really think we weren’t going to talk about Jimmy Kimmel?" and noting that after 29 seasons, the panel would not be silenced. The panel had remained quiet for two episodes after the suspension, prompting speculation that ABC, the network's parent company, had directed the panelists to stay quiet.

Goldberg explained why they waited to speak: "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." She framed the move as an example of government power to suppress the right to free speech: "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."

Navarro said, "I don’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." Alyssa Farah Griffin added, "The First Amendment is the first for a reason, because you need to be able to hold those in power accountable."

Just hours later, ABC announced Kimmel would return to air on Tuesday night. White House spokesperson Steven Cheung slammed both Kimmel and The View in a statement provided to Entertainment Weekly, saying, "Jimmy Kimmel is a no-talent loser who has beclowned himself with tanking ratings and by spewing disgusting lies to his audience. That’s why the network kicked him to the curb like a used empty beer can." He added, "Similarly, ‘The View’ is also devoid of actual talent, and is a collection of irrelevant has-beens and never-beens that nobody with any commonsense [sic] would ever watch unless it was to laugh at them."

The return of Kimmel did little to quell the broader debate over the balance between entertainment, news, and political speech, a debate that has only intensified as officials steer the boundaries of what constitutes bona fide journalism on programs like The View. The Broadcast and Communications landscape has already seen scrutiny around The View’s classification, with FCC Chair Brendan Carr signaling last Thursday that his agency might reevaluate the show’s status as a bona fide news program, a designation that exempts it from the FCC’s equal opportunity rule. That rule requires non-news programs to provide opposing political candidates with equal air time, a standard critics say can shape how political content is presented on non-traditional news platforms.

Trump has long viewed The View as a political obstacle, labeling the hosts as out of touch and calling for more aggressive action against the show at rallies. The political theater surrounding The View and Kimmel reflects a broader cultural moment where entertainment, media regulation, and partisan rhetoric intersect in real time, influencing how audiences consume late-night comedy and daytime talk.

As Kimmel returned to the air and The View prepared for forthcoming episodes, the public conversation around free expression, government influence, and media accountability showed no immediate sign of quieting. The entertainment world has grown accustomed to high-profile disputes spilling into politics, but the current episode underscored how quickly a late-night suspension can morph into a national discussion about rights, power, and the role of broadcast media in shaping public discourse.