Jimmy Kimmel got his long-running late-night show pulled indefinitely from the airwaves after comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk set off a firestorm in MAGAworld.
Conservative commentator Benny Johnson led the charge against Kimmel, accusing the host of “victim blaming” and pushing “lies” in his monologue on Monday night.
“This is sick,” Johnson wrote in a Wednesday X post, arguing that Kimmel was “explicitly stating that MAGA killed Charlie Kirk and is victim blaming the assassination on Charlie’s movement.”
“It’s definitionally evil and a malicious lie,” he said. “Kimmel must be held accountable.” Mere hours later, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be “pre-empted indefinitely.”
Kimmel made his comments about Kirk while mocking President Donald Trump’s reaction to the death of his close ally.
“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,” he said.
“In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving on Friday,” he went on, before playing a clip of Trump’s nonchalant response when a reporter asked how he was holding up after Kirk’s death.
Kimmel proceeded to poke fun at the president for abruptly shifting the conversation to the construction of his White House ballroom after telling the reporter that he was doing “very good.”
“He’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction,” Kimmel said, drawing laughter from the audience. “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish, okay?”
Kimmel’s show was pulled shortly after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee who authored a chapter of the ultraconservative policy playbook Project 2025, appeared on Johnson’s show to threaten action against the network.
“What appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into that narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person, if that’s what happened here with his conduct, that is really, really sick,” he said. “This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Trump took a victory lap on Truth Social after ABC made the bombshell announcement.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” he wrote. “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even [Stephen] Colbert, if that’s possible.”
The network did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kirk earned himself a spot in the president’s inner circle thanks to his conservative youth organization Turning Point USA and his eponymous podcast, which helped fuel Trump’s rise to power by pushing right-wing values.
The 31-year-old MAGA firebrand was shot dead in Utah last week, immediately prompting liberals and conservatives to blame each other’s ideologies for “radicalizing” the shooter.
Authorities have identified the suspect as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. A criminal indictment filed Tuesday alleged that Robinson texted his roommate and romantic partner that he “had enough” of Kirk’s “hatred.”
Trump was quick to blame Kirk’s killing on “radical left lunatics” and vowed a major investigation of “the left.” Several other officials, including Vice President JD Vance and White House aide Stephen Miller, have insisted that the alleged shooter subscribed to “left-wing ideology,” but the indictment provided scant details supporting their claims.
