ABC has indefinitely pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show off the air following his comments on Charlie Kirk.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely,” an ABC spokesperson told CNN.
The shock move comes shortly after Nexstar, which operates ABC-affiliated stations, said it would not air Kimmel’s show “for the foreseeable future” over “comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk.”
Kimmel had planned to address the backlash and explain how his comments were taken out of context on Wednesday night’s show, a source told The Hollywood Reporter.
However, the host was not planning on apologizing and did not believe an apology for the monologue in question was warranted, according to the source.
Disney, ABC’s parent company, is monitoring the situation and sees a possible return for the show in the next several days, a person familiar with the situation told The Wall Street Journal. However, no return date has been set.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Kimmel’s representatives at ABC for comment.
President Donald Trump cheered the news on Truth Social at 1 a.m. local time from the UK.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” he wrote, before taking shots at the remaining network late-night hosts. “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”
Earlier in the day, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened to take away ABC’s broadcasting license in an interview with right-wing YouTuber Benny Johnson.
Carr claimed that Kimmel had played into a “narrative” that Kirk’s suspected shooter was a “MAGA or Republican motivated person,” citing Monday night’s monologue.
However, the clip in question does not feature Kimmel, who has helmed his show for over two decades, explicitly characterizing Robinson as MAGA or Republican.
Kimmel, 57, actually says, “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.”
Hours before taking Kimmel off the air, senior executives at ABC, Disney, and their affiliates held emergency meetings to figure out how to respond to the backlash to his comments, Rolling Stone reported.
While multiple executives believed Kimmel hadn’t crossed a line, the threat of retaliation from the Trump administration spooked them, two sources told the outlet.
“They were p---ing themselves all day,” an ABC insider told Rolling Stone.
In Nexstar’s statement, Andrew Alford, the president of the company’s broadcast division, called Kimmel’s remarks “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse.”
He said the company does not believe the comments “reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located” and characterized its decision as an “effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”
Carr, who touted CBS’ cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert earlier this year, thanked Nexstar for “doing the right thing” on X.
In an appearance on Fox News’ Hannity Wednesday evening, Carr said ABC was failing to meet the “public interest obligations” that justify its FCC license by airing Kimmel’s show.
Carr also lamented that late night had gone from “court jesters that would make fun of everybody in power to being court clerics and enforcing a very narrow political ideology.”
Meanwhile, Puck’s Matt Belloni reported that ABC has “no plans” to pull episodes of its other Kimmel-hosted show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? “At least not until @BrendanCarrFCC sees this tweet and asks that it be pulled,” he added.
Authorities have identified the suspect in Kirk’s shooting as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. A criminal indictment filed Tuesday alleged that Robinson told his roommate and romantic partner, a man transitioning into a woman, that he “had enough” of Kirk’s “hatred.”
MAGA erupted in celebration after the announcement from ABC.
The Official White House Rapid Response account shared the news with the message, “They’re doing their viewers a favor. Jimmy is a sick freak!”
Johnson wrote on X, “We did it for you, Charlie. And we’re just getting started…” in response to an old post from Kirk, in which the late right-wing commentator said, “Jimmy Kimmel isn’t funny.”
MAGA influencers have launched an online campaign to get people they believe responded inappropriately to Kirk’s assassination fired.
Among those fired over comments made after the murder are MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd and Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah, as well as scores of people working at airlines, restaurants, and other businesses.
Kimmel has long drawn Trump’s wrath. After CBS pulled the plug on Colbert’s show, the president wrote on Truth Social, “Next up will be an even less talented Jimmy Kimmel.”
