[Heccubus]

ABC pulls Kimmel's show
Thursday, June 10, 2004
AUBURN HILLS -- It all started with ABC late-night talk show host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel making a not-so-funny joke about Detroit on Tuesday's Game 2 halftime show of the NBA Finals.

One wonders if Kimmel is laughing now, since his show was temporarily pulled off the air across the nation on Wednesday evening.

Kimmel's show did not air, because of yet more disparaging remarks about Detroit in Wednesday's show. ABC refused to air the episode.

ABC's local affiliate, WXYZ (Ch. 7) issued a statement early today, confirming that Kimmel's national benching was because of his continued trash talk about Detroit.

The network instructed affiliates to offer alternate programming of their choosing.

WXYZ replaced Kimmel with an episode of "The Wayne Brady Show".

The lifting of Kimmel's show capped off a day that saw Metro Detroiters and Pistons fans light up abc.com's Internet board, the network's Los Angeles offices, and local talk-radio shows with anger at Kimmel and his remark.

So what did Kimmel say to ignite this chain reaction?

“They're going to burn the city of Detroit down if the Pistons win,” Kimmel said during halftime of Game 2, using his customary snarky tone.

ABC broadcaster and Ann Arbor resident Mike Tirico objected immediately, saying, “Hey, hey, hey, be careful. That's my home state.”

Kimmel looked a bit stunned at Tirico's objections, then backtracked a bit by saying analyst Tom Tolbert's eye-popping plaid suit should instead be burned.

Grace Gilchrist, WXYZ's general manager and vice president, just happened to be in Los Angeles on Wednesday for an affiliates meeting. Andrea Parquet-Taylor, Channel 7's news director, said Gilchrist personally expressed her outrage at Kimmel's comments to ABC's brass.

Parquet-Taylor hinted that Kimmel was in for some punitive action. Gilchrist later learned about Kimmel's new remarks against Detroit, prompting her to again protest to ABC late Wednesday evening.

“We are pretty livid about the entire situation,” Parquet-Taylor said. “Grace gave them an earful. We think that there is a lot of discussion about how Jimmy Kimmel has jeopardized his right to have clearance in this community. Totally out of line. We have got probably one of the strongest audience bases in the country for him.

“An apology is not going to cut it at all. We're not going to accept that from him. He owes this community much more.”

Kimmel issued a written statement Wednesday afternoon to address the furor. “What I said about Pistons fans during halftime last night was a joke, nothing more,” Kimmel wrote. “If it offended anyone, I am sorry.

“Clearly, over the past 10 years, we in L.A. have taken a commanding lead in postgame riots. If the Lakers win, I plan to overturn my own car.”

http://www.detnews.c.../10/-180043.htm

In other news, people in Detroit apparently do not have a sense of humour.

[Chefelf]

Wow, what a bunch of boneheads. That is such a tame remark. It's not a FUNNY joke, but it's not offensive either. I can't imagine having any reaction if people said the same thing about the city where I live.

I should imagine that Jimmy did some other things to piss off ABC besides make this remark.

I'm starting to think that the two people who have influence American culture the most in the past five years are as follows:

1.) Janet Jackson
2.) Osama Bin Laden

... in that order.

[Rory]

Is JJ the one who flashed her nipple that time, thus ruining the lives of literally Millions of 2-17 year olds?

[Laura]

Yup.

Not that I'm upset about Kimmel getting pulled--he's a jackass--but damn. They know he's a jackass, and they pull him for saying something of about average jackassitude?

[Rory]

I thought he was occasionally funny in the Man Show.

[Chefelf]

They know he's a jackass, and they pull him for saying something of about average jackassitude?

I'd say it's below average jackassitude. I bet you could easily fine a dozen quotes by Kimmel that are twice as offensive as the Detroit one.

I have no great love for Kimmel. I don't find him particularly amusing... but he has his audience. One thing I respect him for is not apologizing. Too many people just issue apologies for saying things like this. I'm sick of people apologizing for nothing.

[Vwing]

It's funny, when I saw the topic, I thought it was just that his show was being pulled for being bad. I actually really liked him on the Man Show, but he's just not cut out to be a talk show host, especially a network talk show host where he isn't allowed to do his normal schtick, and the show does suck. But wow. Just wow. This is horrible. To be offended over this? I'd like to quote Will Ferrel playing Alex Trebek.

"And the country has sunk to a new low."

*replaced show with country*

[Jordan]

He deserves death.

Those poor detroitites. Vancouver had a riot when the Canucks lost to NY in the finals. And if anyone said to me "Jordan, Vancouver is full of rioting jerks, and I hope the Canucks never win" I would agree.

I live right near the bar/night club district. I was actually relieved when Vancouver lost, because if they went any further and lost, my apartment (which is on the main floor) would've been burnt down.

[Jen]

While I don't know for sure why this struck such a chord with Detroit listeners, I have a hunch. Detroit was the site of two huge riots in the 20th century, the first in 1943 and the second in 1967. The 1943 riot lasted 36 hours, and by its end 1800 people were arrested and 34 dead. In 1967, the riots lasted five days -- 7,231 people were arrested and 43 people died (as all Canadians know from leaning "Black Day in July" at their mothers' knees). Both riots were the result of years of escalating racial tension, and the costs were huge: rebuilding burned businesses, the arrests, the death, and the huge gap betweeen white and black citizens of the city. This is all just to say, riots aren't take lightly in Detroit, and I can imagine that the people old enough to remember either riot wouldn't take kindly to a jocular reference from that smirking toadie Jimmy Kimmel.

[J m HofMarN]

I really enjoyed the man show, simply because it was so chauvinistic it was almost satire or sarcasm. I don't think he can get that multi-faceted appeal into a talk show even though he can be clever. I thought the same thing everyone else did. I find it odd that, Kimmel being from LA, people dont think he has the right to take a riot lightly. Maybe this comment would have sunk a president but a man who previously made his living getting women to sign petitions against women's suffrage (I don't care but I loved that sketch) and buying kids beer I don't know why anyone would take him seriously.

[civilian_number_two]

He deserves death.

Those poor detroitites. Vancouver had a riot when the Canucks lost to NY in the finals. And if anyone said to me "Jordan, Vancouver is full of rioting jerks, and I hope the Canucks never win" I would agree.

I live right near the bar/night club district. I was actually relieved when Vancouver lost, because if they went any further and lost, my apartment (which is on the main floor) would've been burnt down.

I know you're kidding, but I'd like to say something about the Vancouver riots, since I was nearby and a sideline witness to that event.

There were yahoos all the way from the interior who came to Vancouver to party in the streets. the police didn't want to break it up since they didn't want to look like poor sports. The crowd swelled to the size that iuterally anything, including an argument about tea cosies, could have led to a riot. There is a size a crowd can get to where the individual merit of any one person means absolutely nothing. Add public drinking, and the recent memory of downtown riots in LA, and yahoos will go mad with the breaking of windows and the taunting of cops. One goof charged the police and got shot with rubber bullets. One cop decided to fire a warnig shot - into the ground! - and was apparently surprised to learn that rubber bounces and the poor yahoo took the thing right in the eye. It took thirty minutes for an ambulance to get to the kid, since the crowds would NOT disperse!

Conclusion: Vancouver cops have proven that they don't know how to break up a crowd, or at least that in 1994, they still had lots to learn.

[Jordan]

Just for the record I was upset when Vancouver lost, for those who thought I was serious.


Civillian- Was the riot as bad as the papers made it out to be? I remember when I spent a year in Alberta, I partied alot on white ave (place of the Canada Day riots) and locals did not think the riot was all that bad. Many did not even realize there was a riot.

White ave is a big strip. The papers gave me the impression that the whole street was up in smoke.

This post has been edited by Jordan: 11 June 2004 - 01:41 AM

[barend]

I just want to say...

in australia we insult each other alot...
more friends adress each other as "cunt" then they do as "mate"

if you stick your middle finger up at someone on TV it will not be digitized or blurred or black-spotted. we are comfortable with who we are, and are open about what we feel like taking the piss out of!!!

consequentionally, there is no built up rage that manifests itself us a school or post office shooting!

I would like the american broadcasting community to take that into consideration, next time there's a great tradgedy that could have been avoided.

it's not what you see, it's what you supress that makes a ticking time bomb!

[Heccubus]

I just want to say...

in australia we insult each other alot...
more friends adress each other as "cunt" then they do as "mate"

if you stick your middle finger up at someone on TV it will not be digitized or blurred or black-spotted. we are comfortable with who we are, and are open about what we feel like taking the piss out of!!!

consequentionally, there is no built up rage that manifests itself us a school or post office shooting!

I would like the american broadcasting community to take that into consideration, next time there's a great tradgedy that could have been avoided.

it's not what you see, it's what you supress that makes a ticking time bomb!

Much of the same goes for Canada. Much Music VJs and guests say "ass" or "shit" without consequence, however "fuck" is still bleeped most of the time. Sometimes "asshole" is as well, as is "god damn it" but not "damn it". We have fickle censors. my friends and I also call each other "cunt" a lot, but I think it might just be us. Because we're somewhat odd that way. There is a bit of a problem with school/office shootings, but we don't go to the extent that some US broadcasters do with editing the footage. I noticed that CTV and CBC news programs also showed more of the 9/11 footage than US networks did. It doesn't make us better or anything, it's just another example of what you're talking about.
I don't necessarily think that these things make our broadcasting any better than the US'. Especially when the differences are only noticeable in shows like The Sopranos and The Osbournes, most of the time.

[civilian_number_two]

Civillian- Was the riot as bad as the papers made it out to be? I remember when I spent a year in Alberta, I partied alot on white ave (place of the Canada Day riots) and locals did not think the riot was all that bad. Many did not even realize there was a riot.

I don't remember how bad the papers made them out to be, but probably not. It was basically an Agridome-sized crowd all packed onto Robson street between, I don't know, Thurlow and Bute maybe. Maybe a thousand or more people, insulated by numbers, the low police presence and the thin glass windows of the high-priced clothing stores.

So when things got rolling, there was some damage, sure, and the cops had to come out. The smart people left, and the yahoos hung around to see what tear gas smelled like. Some felt they were making a stand for "freedom of assembly," forgetting that they were in Canada and that in the US, where that clause exists, it is "Peaceful assembly," and it's to protect politics and religion (which it doesn't do, of course, down there). So for being idiots they got a little beat up, and casually arrested, and one guy climbed up on the power lines and electocuted himself and another guy, whose cousin I worked with, got shot in the eye with a rubber bullet and for a little while ended up in a coma. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, but in his case that was an IQ test.

Robson was good to go in a couple of days: some glass companies got paid; some insurance claims kicked in; no government money was spent; and the media started publishing photos to help the police make arrests. I walked up Robson the next day, since I'd been staying at a friend's near Davie and Jervis, and it looked like a really bad riot had swept over a two-block area. So no, not that big of a deal at all.