Jimmy Kimmel may apologize for his comments about Charlie Kirk‘s death when he returns to television (except on ABC affiliate Sinclair and Nexstar‘s stations) this week, but his staff members won’t! In fact, they plan to take action if he gives in to the pressure!
We previously heard the comedian was extremely upset last week when ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! from the air “indefinitely” amid controversy surrounding remarks made about Charlie’s assassination and conservative politicians’ reactions to it. He reportedly refused to apologize — despite pressure from Sinclair. They even demanded a large donation from Jimmy to the Kirk-founded Turning Point USA. But now that Jimmy is returning Tuesday night, could he still cave in? That is what his staff reportedly fears…
Related: Bill Maher Rips ABC Over Jimmy Kimmel Suspension!
A source told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that it is pure “chaos” hours before the show as no one knows what Jimmy plans to say in his monologue. Yep! It is a BIG secret right now, so they have no idea whether he will apologize or not! If he does, though, staffers won’t stand by him! The staff plan is to supposedly “walkout” after any apology! The insider claimed:
“It’s chaos. No one knows what Jimmy is going to say, but there are rumblings that if he apologizes, there will be a walkout.”
Whoa! According to the source, the crew feels it would be a huge “betrayal” — even if Jimmy is only backing down to save their jobs:
“If he grovels or falls on his sword, that’s actually a betrayal to all of us. It will feel like he doesn’t have our back. I know that could save us our jobs, but that’s not the point. We were all in agreement about the things he said; we all felt that they were appropriate, and if he walks them back, that would invalidate what we had all discussed. I understand that he’s got to protect his career, but he can’t do it at the expense of truth and what we all agreed on.”
His team also doesn’t appreciate being left out at the moment. The source continued:
“There’s also a feeling that we were in it together when we discussed what to say, when things were written for him, when we bounced things off each other. And now the decision is being made over our heads, with none of our input. We don’t know what’s going to happen, and that feels s**tty.”
Ultimately, the staff thinks Jimmy didn’t do anything wrong, so if he apologizes, it’s just going to ruin all their hard work:
“Look, I understand if he had said that Charlie Kirk deserved to get shot in the neck, but he didn’t. He didn’t say any of that at all. And we all talked about how to be respectful while still saying what needed to be said. It’s annoying because we tried so hard. So yeah, if Jimmy grovels, he undoes all that and we are all going to be pissed.”
Also it apparently doesn’t matter if the late-night host only expresses regret and doesn’t actually say the words “I’m sorry.” The staff will supposedly feel the same way:
“The rumor is that he’s going to apologize in some way, or at least express his regrets. And expressing regrets is the same as apologizing.”
Looks like nobody will know what Jimmy will say until the show airs. The source went on to reiterate again that everyone is being kept in the dark:
“Everyone’s talking, but trying not to talk, and there are some people, including our EP [executive producer], who don’t want us to talk about it.”
Hmm.
Will Kimmel stand his ground? Or will he apologize? His first post on Instagram since the suspension is very telling about where he stands. However, an exec at a rival network believes he will most likely do the latter at the end of the day:
“If he were on our network, we’d definitely want him to be somewhat conciliatory. I’m not saying he has to beg for forgiveness, but talk about unity and togetherness and reiterate that we send condolences to Charlie Kirk’s family. I assume that Disney and ABC are going to require that. It only makes sense.”
If that is so, Jimmy may be about to have more problems on his hands with his own staff, if this report is to be believed.
Thoughts, Perezcious readers? Do you plan to watch his first episode back? Let us know in the comments!
[Image via Charlie Kirk/Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube]
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