ABC yanks Kimmel off air 'indefinitely' after comments about Kirk shooting
Network decision came after Nexstar Media said it was preempting airings of Kimmel's show on its stations
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Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show has been yanked off the air after comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s murder.
Disney’s ABC said it was dropping Jimmy Kimmel Live! “indefinitely” after one of America’s biggest owners of TV stations, Nexstar Media, said it was preempting airings of Kimmel’s show.
In a statement provided to Variety, Deadline, NBC News and other media outlets, Nexstar, which owns 200 stations in the U.S., said 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.”
Andrew Alford, the president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, told NBC, “Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views or values of the local communities in which we are located.
“Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”
After the news broke that Nexstar was bumping Kimmel, ABC acted in kind.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be pre-empted indefinitely,” an ABC spokesperson told NBC, offering no other details in a statement.
In his monologue Monday night, Kimmel floated a conspiracy theory that Kirk’s alleged killer Tyler Robinson was actually a pro-Donald Trump Republican.
“The MAGA gang (is) 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. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”
Kimmel also mocked the U.S. president’s response to Kirk’s death.
“In between the finger-pointing, there was, uh, 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,” Kimmel said, before cutting to a clip where Trump fielded questions from reporters wondering how he was taking the news by pointing to construction at the White House.
Before Nexstar and ABC moved on Kimmel, FCC chairman Brendan Carr appeared on Benny Johnson’s podcast and ripped the TV personality, calling his remarks “some of the sickest conduct possible.”
Carr then suggested that the FCC could get involved and added there are “remedies we can look at.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said, according to Variety. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
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Last week, following Kirk’s assassination, Kimmel pleaded for an end to “angry finger-pointing.
“Can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human?” he wrote on Instagram.
After his fellow late-night host Stephen Colbert was axed by CBS in July, Trump — a frequent target on late-night television — lambasted Kimmel.
“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time. “His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! (Fox News late-night host) Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”
Following news that Kimmel had been put on ice, Trump returned to social media to cheer the report.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday evening. “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT”
Wanda Sykes, who was set to appear on Kimmel on Wednesday night, called the move disappointing.
“Let’s see. He didn’t end the Ukraine war or solve Gaza within his first week. But he did end freedom of speech within his first year. Hey, for those of you who pray, now’s the time to do it. Love you, Jimmy,” Sykes said in a video posted to Instagram.
“This isn’t right,” Ben Stiller added in an X post.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom accused the Republican party of censoring dissenting voices “in real time.”
“This is the most straightforward attack on free speech from state actors I’ve ever seen in my life and it’s not even close,” MSNBC host Chris Hayes added.
Kirk, 31, was shot Sept. 10 during a speech at Utah Valley University.
His suspected killer, Robinson, 22, was arrested by police after his father turned him in to authorities.
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