Glen Powell Shows His Support of Jimmy Kimmel Following Suspension

Glen Powell is showing his support for Jimmy Kimmel on the first episode of his late-night show since it was put on “indefinite” hiatus nearly a week ago.

The 36-year-old actor appeared on the Sept. 23 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which marked the first installment of the show since ABC reinstated it one day prior.

When introducing the Chad Powers star, Kimmel apologized to him for pulling him “into the middle of all this.”

“I’m honored. I’m just so happy you’re back,” Powell told Kimmel.

Powell also told Kimmel about his pre-fame days, when he moved to Los Angeles in 2008. He recalled how Kimmel and his producer, Diane Kelson, would give him access to the green room. “So when you can’t afford snacks or alcohol, I could always come to the Jimmy Kimmel show and have my feast,” Powell said.

Kimmel jokingly asked Powell to repeat the story in a way to make it sound like “I saved your life.”

Powell’s appearance comes as he is gearing up for his new show, Chad Powers, which is set to premiere Sept. 30 on the Walt Disney Company-owned streaming service Hulu.

On the show, Powell stars as hotshot quarterback Russ Holliday, who is “trying to resurrect his dreams by disguising himself as Chad Powers — a talented oddball who walks onto the struggling South Georgia Catfish” eight years after a costly mistake cost him his college football career, according to an official synopsis.

Powell joined Kimmel, 57, one day after the Walt Disney Company announced in a press release that the late-night show would return on Sept. 23 after being suspended for nearly a week.

Disney shared in a statement that its initial decision to “suspend production” was out of a desire to “avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country.”

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“We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday,” the statement said.

The decision to reinstate Kimmel led Sinclair, the broadcasting company that makes up the nation’s largest ABC affiliate group, to announce on social media that it would be “preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming.”

Nexstar Media, which operates 28 ABC-affiliated stations, confirmed it will also continue to preempt the show following Kimmel’s on-air comments regarding the fatal shooting of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.

“We made a decision last week to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! following what ABC referred to as Mr. Kimmel’s ‘ill-timed and insensitive’ comments at a critical time in our national discourse. We stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve,” Nexstar said in the statement.

On Sept. 17, an ABC spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE that Kimmel’s show would be on pause “indefinitely” following the host’s comments during his Sept. 15 monologue.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said at the time. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”

“On Friday, the White House flew the flags at half staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this,” he continued, as a clip cut to showing President Donald Trump taking questions from reporters after the assassination. One offered their condolences for the death of the president’s “friend” Kirk.

However, when asked about how he was holding up, Trump, 79, replied, “I think very good, and by the way, right there where you see all the trucks, they just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House.”

He continued discussing the ballroom plans, saying the result would “be a beauty.” When cameras cut back to Kimmel, he said, “Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief, construction.”

Kimmel, meanwhile, previously offered his condolences to Kirk’s family on social media, writing, “Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.”

ABC’s decision to remove Kimmel from the air came after Nexstar Media’s announcement that it would acquire rival broadcast company Tegna for $6.2 billion and place itself in 80% of America’s TV-owning households, per a press release. The acquisition requires final approval from the Trump-controlled FCC.

Nexstar later said that it “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”

After the suspension, Hollywood — including other late-night hosts — spoke out in support of Kimmel. Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert  addressed his suspension, as did Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Howard Stern, and the co-hosts of The View.

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Prior to Kimmel’s return, over 400 celebrities also signed a letter defending the constitutional right to free speech and supporting Kimmel. Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck and Tom Hanks were among the signatures on the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) letter, along with prominent Disney stars Selena Gomez, Pedro Pascal, Diego Luna, Martin Short and Meryl Streep.