After comments made on Monday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! concerning the death of Charlie Kirk, ABC has announced the show will be pulled from broadcast. According to CNBC, Kimmel made comments regarding the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, that found him in hot water with the FCC and President Trump.
According to CNBC, Brendan Carr, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, expressed that ABC was at risk of losing its broadcast license due to Kimmel’s comments. Later, TV station conglomerate Nexstar Media Group announced its ABC affiliates would “preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ for the foreseeable future.”
Kimmel, who has drawn the administration’s ire for previous commentary, spoke on Robinson’s affiliation with MAGA, or Make America Great Again, supporters of the Republican Party. Robinson is accused of allegedly shooting and killing Kirk, a rising voice in conservative circles, last week during a college tour that began at Utah University.
“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,” Kimmel said via CNBC.
According to a source close to the situation, Kimmel has not been let go, CNBC reports. His future on the air will be discussed at a later date with the ABC owner, Disney.
Kimmel is the latest TV personality and critic of the Trump administration to receive what some could perceive as retaliation for certain speech about Kirk’s death. According to CNBC, MSNBC commentator Matthew Dowd was fired after he stated, “hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.” Some interpreted that as him blaming Kirk for the violent act that took his life. And The Washington Post fired its last Black opinion writer, Karen Attiah, following her statements that called out double standards across race in reactions to the killing on social media.
While Kirk’s death is the latest hot-button topic to not talk about, Trump has long targeted late-night hosts for their criticism, aiming at Kimmel, NBC’s Seth Meyers, and CBS’s Stephen Colbert. Colbert and The Late Show will end this year after Paramount pulled the plug on the TV staple. They cited the cancellation as financial issue, but many suspect it was retaliation for Colbert’s speech against the president. The cancellation came mere days after the FCC approved Skydance Media’s acquisition of Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS. Similarly, this push to censure Kimmel comes as Nexstar seeks to merge with Tegna, a $6.2 billion deal.
According to CNBC, Trump gloated about Kimmel’s punishment, suggesting Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show and Late Night with Seth Meyers should be canceled next.
“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,” Trump posted to Truth Social via CNBC.
Elsewhere, there was some pushback against the decision that can be perceived as a violation of the First Amendment.
“America is meant to be a bastion of free speech,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X, according to CNBC. “Everybody across the political spectrum should be speaking out to stop what’s happening to Jimmy Kimmel. This is about protecting democracy.”
According to CNBC, Nexstar president of broadcasting division, Andrew Alford, issued a statement saying: “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.”
In addition to targeting media personalities, the Trump administration has made a habit of coercing news organizations to his beck and call over alleged bias in reporting. Suits were settled by CBS’s 60 Minutes and ABC News Studios, and CBS News’s Face the Nation changed its interview policies to accommodate Homeland Security head Kristi Noem.