Brian Stelter

I think we could imagine a world where next spring Kimmel's show moves off broadcast.

Maybe it's just going to go to streaming.

Maybe it's going to become a pure subscription play.

And maybe that's actually in the best interest of everybody involved.

If the government is going to continue to wield its power to punish private companies, ABC might decide it is better to put the show on to streaming.

But if that was the decision they would make with Jimmy and not for Jimmy, you know what I mean?

That would be a conversation.

And it's, you know, that's a sad reflection of our times if companies are going to feel they have to take that kind of action because of the Trump administration.

Yeah, you know, nobody's really leaking, which is unusual in these situations.

Usually when there's a late night drama, we hear some pretty spicy information from sources.

In this case, I think everybody is trying to play it cool.

It was not in Kimmel's interest to go out there trying to burn ABC down, trying to leak against ABC.

His camp, so to speak, has not been out there trying to push certain narratives.

As far as I can tell, certainly my phone's not ringing, neither are other media reporters.

So it is telling that this has not exploded, you know, with background quotes and anonymous jabs back and forth.

It is interesting, though, that ABC's statement when they announced he was coming back, they referred to thoughtful conversations with Jimmy.

And I think that's a euphemism for some pretty strong language that was used back and forth, right?

Kimmel was clear on the air last night.

He did not agree with ABC's decision to suspend the show.

He did not want to be sidelined.