Lost’ Creator Damon Lindelof Pledges Not to Work With Disney Until Jimmy Kimmel Suspension Is Lifted

“I was shocked, saddened and infuriated by yesterday’s suspension and look forward to it being lifted soon. If it isn’t, I can’t in good conscience work for the company that imposed it… If you’re about to fire up in my comments, just ask yourself if you know the difference between hate speech and a joke. I think you still do.”

Damon Lindelof has vowed not to work with Disney until “Jimmy Kimmel Live” is reinstated on ABC. Disney-owned ABC decided on Wednesday to “indefinitely” suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show over backlash against comments the host made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

“I was shocked, saddened and infuriated by yesterday’s suspension and look forward to it being lifted soon,” wrote Lindelof, best known for creating “Lost,” which aired on ABC for six seasons from 2004 to 2010. “If it isn’t, I can’t in good conscience work for the company that imposed it.”

He concluded the lengthy caption on his Instagram post saying, “If you’re about to fire up in my comments, just ask yourself if you know the difference between hate speech and a joke. I think you still do.”

Kimmel recently came under fire from conservatives after he said during Monday night’s monologue that “the MAGA gang” was attempting to portray Kirk’s assassin as “anything other than one of them.”

Disney’s shocking decision to indefinitely suspend the late-night talk show followed threats by Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, to take action against ABC over Kimmel’s remarks. Soon after Carr’s comments, Nexstar Media, a major owner of ABC affiliate stations around the country, said it would pre-empt airings of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” for the “foreseeable future” because it “strongly objects” to the host’s comments. Nexstar is in the midst of acquiring a rival company in a $6.2 billion bid that will be scrutinized by the F.C.C.

Lindelof, who also created HBO’s “Watchmen” and “The Leftovers,” is one of the first major names in Hollywood to pledge to boycott of Disney in support of Kimmel. Earlier on Thursday, “Sorry to Bother You” filmmaker Boots Riley suggested the Directors Guild of America should impose a strike against Disney-affiliated projects.

“If DGA has its members not show up for any ABC/Disney/Hulu/Marvel show until they reverse the Kimmel decision, they’ll reverse the decision within hours AT MOST,” he wrote on X. “DGA has only gone on strike once. It was so powerful it only took 19 hours til demands were met.”

Hollywood unions, including the Writers Guild of America, SAG-AFTRA, and the American Federation of Musicians, have all released statements in support of Kimmel.

“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,” the WGA wrote in a statement. “It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice.”

SAG-AFTRA said, “The decision to suspend airing ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ is the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone’s freedoms.”