Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel announced on Thursday that he will take the summer off from his show as he faces criticism for performing in blackface in an old, recurring skit.
ABC’s Kimmel had co-hosted The Man Show on Comedy Central, where he dressed in blackface as now-retired NBA star Karl Malone. Videos and photos of Kimmel in the skit from the show, which ran from 1999-2004, circulated across social media with recent calls for him to apologize.
Kimmel said in a video announcement that he was taking time off to be with his family.
“There’s nothing wrong,” he said. “My family’s healthy. I’m healthy. I just need a couple of months off.”
Another late-night fixture, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, also apologized for his own episodes of participating in a blackface skit he did on Saturday Night Live in 2000.
Calls to acknowledge actions seen as racially insensitive have grown following the death of George Floyd. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died on Memorial Day after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes despite his pleas for air. Protests around the world have organized against racial injustice and police brutality.
A number of high-profile people, businesses, and organizations have vowed to try to do their part to improve race relations.
