As Kimmel returns, Roseanne Barr decries ‘double standard’: ‘I’ve been socially erased’

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Just before Jimmy Kimmel was set to return to television, Roseanne Barr publicly blamed him, saying that if he had supported her, he might not have faced recent issues of his own.

On Tuesday, Ann Coulter appeared on NewsNation to express her complaints about her previous job at ABC, Jimmy Kimmel’s temporary removal from the air, and his eventual return. Coulter, 72, stated she experienced greater professional consequences for a racially insensitive tweet about a former aide to President Obama than Kimmel or Whoopi Goldberg, who received a short suspension in 2022 for inaccurate statements regarding the Holocaust.

Roseanne Barr’s show was canceled in 2018 after she posted a tweet referring to Valerie Jarrett, a top advisor to President Obama, in a racist way. Barr compared Jarrett to someone from the ‘Planet of the Apes’ and falsely claimed she was connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. She later apologized, saying she didn’t realize Jarrett was Black.

She stated on Tuesday that her life had been destroyed, claiming her work was taken credit for and she was unfairly labeled racist for a mistake regarding someone’s race and gender. She believes this highlights a double standard and reveals how others perceive the situation.

Jimmy Kimmel returned to his show less than a week after being temporarily removed due to comments he made about supporters of Donald Trump (MAGA) and the person accused in the shooting death of conservative personality Charlie Kirk. Although Disney, ABC’s parent company, reinstated Kimmel, two major media groups, Nexstar and Sinclair, decided to continue pulling his show from their local ABC stations.

Television

Jimmy Kimmel was back on his ABC late-night show Tuesday night, where he spoke about the controversy surrounding his remarks about Charlie Kirk and expressed gratitude for the support he received over the last week.

Roseanne Barr criticized Jimmy Kimmel, pointing out that ABC continued to employ him despite his past use of blackface on his show, “The Man Show,” in the late 1990s and early 2000s, for which he later apologized in 2020. She also criticized Sarah Silverman and Joy Behar, both of whom faced criticism for similar past instances of using blackface. Barr then broadened her complaints, arguing that she simply doesn’t understand the way the left thinks.

Roseanne Barr says she feels completely ignored and overlooked since being fired in 2018, a feeling she previously expressed to The Times in 2023. When asked if Jimmy Kimmel’s recent return to television suggests a positive shift away from “cancel culture,” she plainly answered, “no.”

“I think as their viewership tanks, they congratulate themselves,” she said.

Television

The announcement that ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ was going on indefinite hiatus brought to mind the cancellation of Roseanne Barr’s show, which was revived in 2018, though the two situations weren’t exactly the same.

Returning to his show Tuesday night after a week-long suspension, Jimmy Kimmel began by passionately defending the importance of free speech. He stated that the government shouldn’t have the power to dictate what’s said on television, and that people need to resist such control.

Two days after Jimmy Kimmel made his comments, and before the media companies Nexstar and Sinclair asked ABC to intervene, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr hinted at potential consequences, stating they could address the situation ‘the easy way or the hard way.’

Kimmel admitted he used to take his freedom of speech for granted, but realized its value when his friend Stephen Colbert faced pressure that nearly led to his show being cancelled, and when attempts were made to pressure local stations into cancelling Kimmel’s show as well.

“That’s not legal,” he continued. “That’s not American. That is un-American.”

Stephen Colbert learned in July that “The Late Show” won’t continue on CBS after his contract ends in 2026. This news came while CBS’s parent company, Paramount, was trying to get permission for a sale to Skydance Media. Now, Skydance is reportedly planning to make an offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, the company that owns CNN, among other assets.

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2025-09-25 00:32