The panelists of The View have broken their silence on Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s suspension after the chair of the Federal Communications Commission recommended that the agency “look into” their talk show program next.
After two straight episodes in which the panel did not mention ABC’s decision to cancel Jimmy Kimmel’s long-running late-night show, they are finally discussing their opinions on the network’s decision. On Monday, Sept. 22, panelists Whoopi Goldberg, Ana Navarro, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin discussed Kimmel’s show being pulled after the host made on-air remarks about Charlie Kirk, the conservative commentator who was killed at a Utah Valley University event.
As Goldberg, 69, began the program, she stated that the panel “took a breath to see if Jimmy [Kimmel] was going to say anything about it” first. “I mean, did you really think we wouldn’t talk about Jimmy Kimmel? I mean, have you seen the program for the past 29 seasons? You know, no one can quiet us,” she replied.
“…We did the same thing to Stephen Colbert. Then our show was taped on Friday. But we still live here now,” Goldberg added. “And we’re getting into it now.”
According to Goldberg, “You cannot like a show, and it can go off the air”; thus, “someone can say something they shouldn’t and get taken off the air,” yet “the government cannot apply pressure to force someone to be silenced.”
The View then showed a video of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul disagreeing with the Kimmel dispute. Goldberg said of President Donald Trump, “I don’t understand how you are the man in charge of the nation and you still don’t understand how the First Amendment works.”
After Hostin, 56, agreed that “the president of the United States should know what freedom of speech means,” Navarro, 53, sent a message to the audience at home.
“For me, I’d want to begin by thanking our devoted viewers for demanding truth and bravery from us. “You deserve it, and we will give it to you,” she explained. Last week, fans expressed worry over the show’s failure to acknowledge Kimmel’s late-night popularity, with many sharing their concerns on The View’s Instagram posts.
Navarro went on: “The part that I don’t understand that is so ironic to me is how the horrible, senseless assassination of Charlie Kirk—a man I disagreed with—who stood for debate and who stood for freedom of speech, is being used to silence people and cancel people.”
“I don’t understand how in this country, where the First Amendment to the Constitution was to guarantee freedom of the press and freedom of speech, the government itself is using its weight and power to bully and scare people into silence,” added the senator.
Navarro then discussed her experience living in Nicaragua. “I have to tell you that I lived under a right-wing dictatorship in Nicaragua… I lived under a left-wing dictatorship.” This is what dictators and authoritarians do, regardless of ideology,” she remarked. “At first, they target those with large platforms, and they suppress the press. But then they come for all of us, intending to terrify us into quiet and self-censorship.
“… A bully always comes back for more,” she explained. “They need to stand up, and we need to demand the same from ourselves.”
Farah Griffin, 36, also advised people to “think about the precedent it sets down the road.”
Two days before ABC’s decision on Wednesday, September 17, Kimmel stated in his Monday, September 15, monologue that the “MAGA Gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they could to score political points from it.” In between the finger-pointing, there was grief. He also expressed his sympathy to Kirk’s family prior to the program.
His dismissal came after Nexstar Media, the largest local broadcast and digital media firm in the United States, announced that it will purchase rival broadcast giant Tegna for $6.2 billion, putting it in 80% of America’s TV-owning households, according to a news release. The purchase would require final clearance from the Trump-controlled Federal Communications Commission.
Nexstar then disclosed that it “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”
In the days that followed, FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who had hailed the decision on social media, subsequently told The Scott Jennings Radio Show on September 18 that it could be “worthwhile” for the commission to look at The View next. “When you look at these other TV shows, what’s interesting is the fact that the FCC does have a rule called the equal opportunity rule,” Carr claimed. “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.”
“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 are therefore exempt from the equal opportunity regime that Congress has put in place,” he said following the vote.
The most recent remarks on The View came after the show’s Sept. 18 and Sept. 19 editions, in which the panel did not discuss Jimmy Kimmel Live! being yanked.
On September 19, a source informed PEOPLE that allegations of “chaos” behind the scenes of ABC’s daytime talk program were “false.”
“There is no chaos at the show,” the person explained. The team remains committed to producing a daily talk show and engaging in thoughtful conversations at the table.
Goldberg wished the audience a good Rosh Hashanah at the close of the Sept. 22 performance and provided this message: “Don’t give up; we are all in this together, and we’re doing it, and we will see you tomorrow, because we will.”