Disney’s ABC television network is indefinitely removing Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show from the air amid controversy over his recent comments about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer.
Jimmy Kimmel Live will be suspended indefinitely, an ABC spokesman said, refusing to share more details.
A representative for Kimmel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The surprising decision came just hours after the Trump administration official responsible for licensing ABC’s local stations publicly pressured the company to sanction Kimmel.
At least two major ABC-affiliated station owners later said they would suspend Kimmel’s program, prompting speculation that the owners were trying to appease the government. Those local media conglomerates are looking for mergers that would require administrative approval.
As Kimmel prepared to film Wednesday night’s episode in Hollywood, ABC decided to cancel the show, to the amazement of the entertainment industry.
Freedom of expression groups immediately condemned ABC, calling the suspension cowardly, while President Trump, who frequently clashed with Kimmel, celebrated from the United Kingdom, where he is on a state visit.
“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what was to be done,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. That leaves Jimmy (Fallon) and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. His audience ratings are also awful. Do it, NBC.
The indefinite suspension underscores how politicized opinions and comments have become about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, with high-profile campaigns urging employers to fire people who make perceived comments as unfavorable to Kirk.
And the president has also lashed out at media companies, specifically when they dislike him, as with the $15 billion defamation lawsuit he filed this week against the New York Times and lawsuits against other media outlets.
Kimmel’s comments and their aftermath
During his monologue on Monday night, Kimmel said the MAGA movement was trying to get political points as it tried to prove that Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, was not one of his own.
“The MAGA gang is desperately trying to characterize this boy who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything but one of them and doing his best to get political revenue from it,” Kimmel said. Among the accusations, there was mourning.
The comments of the ABC late-night presenter constituted the most sickening conduct possible,” said Federal Communications Commission (FCC) president Brendan Carr, right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday.
Carr suggested the FCC could proceed to revoke the ABC affiliates’ licenses as a way to force Disney to punish Kimmel.
“We can do this for good or bad,” Carr said. These companies can find ways to change their behavior and take action on Kimmel, or there will be more work for the FCC.
And speaking on Fox on Wednesday night, Carr suggested the announcers would see more of this kind of pressure in the future.
At the FCC, we are going to impose the obligation of public interest. If there are stations they don’t like, they can hand over their license to the FCC, said Carr. But that’s our job. Again, we’re making progress.
But Anna Gomez, the only Democratic commissioner of the FCC, wrote on X that although an unforgivable act of political violence by a disturbed individual should never be exploited as justification for broader censorship and control, the Trump administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress legal expression.
Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett after Kimmel’s show was airlifted, Gomez said: “The First Amendment doesn’t allow us, to the FCC, to tell the broadcasters what they can broadcast.”
I saw the clip. He made no baseless statement, but he did make a joke, one that some may consider rude, but that is neither illegal nor a reason for companies to capitulate to this administration in a way that violates the First Amendment,” Gomez told CNN. This sets a new and dangerous precedent, and companies must stand firm against any attempt to negotiate First Amendment freedom.
Pro-Trump websites and TV shows began criticizing Kimmel for his comments on Tuesday, and as the story gained traction on Wednesday, some ABC-affiliated station owners felt the need to speak out.
Local stations get involved
Nexstar, which operates about two dozen ABC affiliates, issued a press release saying it strongly opposes Kimmel’s comments and that its stations will replace the program with other programming in their ABC-affiliated markets.
It should be noted that Nexstar is seeking the approval of the Trump administration to acquire another large group of stations in the U.S., Tegna. The agreement requires the FCC to relax government limits on ownership of broadcasting stations.
Minutes after Nexstar publicly criticized Kimmel, ABC said the program would be suspended nationwide.
Later that night, another large group of stations, Sinclair, said it had also informed ABC that it would interrupt the broadcast of Kimmel’s program at its ABC-affiliated stations before the network announced its decision nationally.
Sinclair, too, has business pending before the Trump administration. The company announced Wednesday night that it will air an hour-long special in tribute to Kirk on Friday night on Kimmel’s usual schedule.
After ABC decided to remove Kimmel’s show from the air indefinitely, Sinclair issued a statement saying that the night presenter’s suspension is not enough, and asked the network, the FCC, and Kimmel to go further.
Sinclair won’t lift Jimmy Kimmel Live’s suspension. At our stations until formal talks are held with ABC on the network’s commitment to professionalism and responsibility, the company said in its statement. Regardless of ABC’s plans for the future of the program, Sinclair intends not to reissue Jimmy Kimmel Live. Until we are certain that appropriate measures have been taken to maintain the expected standards of a national transmission platform.
Sinclair said he demanded that Kimmel apologize directly to the Kirk family and make a “significant” donation to Kirk’s family and his organization, Turning Point USA.
The role of the FCC
The FCC regulates public radio waves, including signals and content of transmissions.
Before Trump appointed Carr to the agency, the FCC had generally taken a no-intervention stance on the political content of broadcasters in recent years.
But Carr has taken a broader view of the FCC’s task of serving the public interest and has behaved like Trump’s political attack dog, threatening his perceived enemies in the media.
“I can’t imagine another occasion when local broadcasters tell a national programmer like Disney that their content no longer meets the needs or values of our community,” Carr told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday. So this is an important turning point.
The Center for American Rights, which has previously filed bias complaints against NBC, ABC, and CBS, filed a complaint with the FCC on Wednesday about Kimmel’s comments, writing that they are not defensible for saying Kimmel was doing satire or night comedy instead of traditional news.
ABC affiliates must step up their efforts and hold ABC accountable as a network for transmitting material that does not respect the standard of public interest to which they are subject,” Daniel Suhr, president of the Center for American Rights, wrote in the complaint. Disney, as a corporate owner of ABC, must act directly to correct this problem.
SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, said Wednesday night that it condemns the suspension of Kimmel’s program.
Does our society depend on freedom of expression?. The suppression of freedom of expression and reprisals for expressing themselves on important issues of public interest contravene the fundamental rights of all, the union said in its statement.
The decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live’s transmission. It is the kind of repression and reprisal that endangers the freedoms of all, he stressed.
Kimmel has also been a frequent target of President Trump’s ire. Shortly after CBS announced the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s nighttime show, a decision Carr publicly celebrated. Trump suggested that the next one will be a less talented Jimmy Kimmel.
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