Picketers protesting ABC‘s decision leading pause Jimmy Kimmel Live spilled from the Disney Burbank HQ earlier today to the front of the late night host’s El Capitan Theatre.
The crowd numbering under one hundred began its protest at 4:30 p.m., which is the time that the late-night host tapes his show.
Getty/Michael Buckner
Unlike the SAG-AFTRA and WGA-filled demonstration at Disney this afternoon, tonight’s crowd saw mostly fans, anti-Trump protestors like Sunsara Taylor of RefuseFascism.org, a couple of tourists from Seattle who wore Jimmy Kimmel shirts in solidarity, and WGAW members, like Philip Walker (Monster High, Disney Channel’s Just Roll With It) and Jury Duty Emmy nominee Robyn Adams. Sellassie Blackwell, a musician and social justice activist, became the de facto strike captain, showing up early with a huge speaker and a mic to lead the crowd in chants and playing tunes such as Queen’s “I Want to Break Free.”
While it’s de rigueur for Hollywood Blvd. to close down for a big Disney premiere like Star Wars: The Force Awakens or Freakier Friday, that wasn’t the case here during rush hour. Five police officers didn’t show up until 30 minutes into the protest, gently pushing attendees toward the sidewalk and out of the street.
Signs such as “Cancel Disney+,” “Here Comes Hitler: A New Comedy From ABC” with the network logo and a Hitler happy face and “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Russia, Dump Disney and Hulu” peppered the Hollywood Walk of Fame from under the El Capitan cinema marquee to a nearby Hollywood Souvenirs store across from the Dolby Theatre. At one point, a costumed Darth Vader walked through the crowd.
Walker told Deadline, “If you even look at the clip, Jimmy doesn’t even say anything negative about the guy who was murdered,” referring to the late night show host’s monologue about the assassination of right-wing podcaster and Trump ally, Charlie Kirk.
“What he actually said was that Donald Trump didn’t seem to care about the person he claimed to care about so much. So clearly, this isn’t about the person who was murdered, clearly this is about an overgrown man child who is throwing a tantrum. And honestly, we all we work in business, we all work in companies, if you as a worker were watching TV and picking fights all day, what would they say? You’re fired. Yet somehow, we continue to let this person reek terror on us,” Walker added.
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Taylor, taking the mic, shouted, “Donald Trump said today that if you criticize him, you could lose your broadcast license!” which triggered big boos from those gathering.
“Fascism is upon us immediately! It’s the message that the White House has sent by the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. It is our neighbors with brown skin, being stopped and asked for papers, being disappeared and being kidnapped by masked men and disappeared at the concentration camps and around the world. This is fascism,” she added before spurring the crowd to chant, “Trump must go! Jimmy Kimmel must stay!”.
Tonight Stephen Colbert – himself a cancelled late night host in the Trump era come May – spoke in support of his friend Kimmel during his monologue on CBS’ The Late Show. Colbert said that “it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine fall short of community values…You know what my community values are, Buster? Freedom of speech. Or as Alexander Hamilton called it, ‘Hakuna Matata.’”
Earlier today, former President Barack Obama, posted on X, “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”
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