More than 300 people answered a last-minute call Thursday to gather outside of Disney in Burbank to protest ABC‘s decision to indefinitely pull Jimmy Kimmel Live from the air.
Waving signs that read “ABC Bends the Knee to Fascism” and “Even Matt Damon Knows this is F*cked,” members of both the WGA and SAG returned to Disney’s Alameda Avenue gate where they last protested during the 2023 strike. Drivers leaned on their horns as union members — many of whom were wearing blue WGAW T-shirts– marched back and forth in front of the main entrance.
One man carried an upside down American flag, the formal sign of distress. The event was billed as “Protest ABC – For Comedy, Criticism, and 1st Amendment.”
“I didn’t think I would have to whip this out again,” said actress/former strike captain Alyssa Phillips, a SAG-AFTRA member who was wielding a cutout of a Mickey Mouse hand flipping the bird. “I’m tired of feeling helpless. I know this helps. I know this helps because I remember it helping in 2023. There is strength in solidarity and there is strength in the noise.”
Writer Kevin Chesley stood quietly holding a sign that read, “This is literally what your show Andor is about.” He wasn’t alone; another protestor created one that said “Did you even watch Andor?” The Disney+ show won five Emmys, including one for writer Dan Gilroy who wrote Mon Mothma’s stirring anti-fascism speech in the episode “Welcome to the Rebellion.”
“When I see Trump putting on Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center, I’m like, he doesn’t get it,” said Chesley, who found out about the protest 45 minutes before its noon PT start. “It made me realize I needed to be out here today because what’s happening is awful. What happened to Charlie Kirk is awful. I’m out here because I’m sick for this country and I love it. I want it to be better. And this ain’t.”
Lynette Rice/Deadline
Hours before Kimmel was set to start filming Wednesday’s show, Disney top exec Dana Walden had what was described as a “thoughtful conversation” with the comedian after telling him that he and CEO Bob Iger made the decision to “preempt” his show. The move was made in an effort to tamp down controversy after FCC chairman Brendan Carr called Kimmel’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s killer “some of the sickest conduct possible.”
Since the news about Kimmel went public, people have flooded social media with calls to cancel Disney platforms, while a group of House Democrats revealed plans Thursday to write a bill that would further protect free speech.
Lynette Rice/Deadline
Shortly after the news about Kimmel went public, the Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East wrote: “The right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other – to disturb, even – is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people. It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice,” it noted. “As a Guild, we stand united in opposition to anyone who uses their power and influence to silence the voices of writers, or anyone who speaks in dissent. If free speech applied only to ideas we like, we needn’t have bothered to write it into the Constitution. What we have signed on to – painful as it may be at times – is the freeing agreement to disagree. Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth. As for our employers, our words have made you rich. Silencing us impoverishes the whole world.”
