Just when it seemed like things couldn’t get any worse for the late-night landscape, ABC has announced it’s pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live from the schedule indefinitely. That’s right, the long-running late-night talk show has been suspended by ABC telling Deadline that the show has been “pre-empted indefinitely.”
ABC’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! comes on the heels of Nexstar, owner of 28 ABC affiliates across the country, said it would be pre-empting the show for the immediate future as a result of comments made by Kimmel during his monologue during his Sept. 16 taping regarding the death of Charlie Kirk.
“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,” said Andrew Alford, President of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, in a statement. “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 pre-empt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”
The timing comes after Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr threatened to target ABC affiliates after Kimmel suggested the suspect in Kirk’s shooting was a MAGA Republican. In an interview with YouTuber Benny Johnson on Sept. 17 (h/t The Hollywood Reporter), Carr appeared to insinuate the FCC would come down on ABC affiliates if they didn’t take a stand against Kimmel.
“So I think you see some lashing out from people like Kimmel, who are frankly talentless and are looking for ways to get attention,” he said. “Their grip on the narrative is slipping. That doesn’t mean that it’s not still important to hold the public interest standard … We have a rule on the book that interprets the public interest standard that says ‘news distortion’ is something that is prohibited … the FCC has stepped back from enforcing it … I think it’s past time these [affiliates] themselves push back and say, ‘Listen, we’re not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we’re running the possibility of license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion.’ So I think again, Disney needs to see some change here.”
What did Jimmy Kimmel say about Charlie Kirk that resulted in his show being pulled?
Returning with a new episode on Tuesday, Jimmy Kimmel touched upon recent developments suggesting the shooter was part of the “MAGA gang” and that the group was desperately trying to separate itself from the suspect.
“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,” Kimmel commented in the monologue.
By all standards, the comment was rather tame but it seems in the eyes of ABC and its affiliates Kimmel took things too far.
You can watch the full monologue – which has already been viewed by more than 2.4 million individuals – below to see Kimmel’s full remarks:
The move by ABC to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live is certainly a controversial one and comes at a time when late-night is under attack in a way we’ve never seen before. While the shows have always addressed political matters, the Trump Administration has targeted the late-night and daytime hosts who have spoken out against their policies.
It’s unclear how long Kimmel will remain off the airwaves, but it’s looking like we won’t see new episodes airing for some time. The move marks a major turning point in the ongoing attack against late-night and its hosts. Seeing ABC pull the show from its lineup is a chilling decision and one that makes us worry what the future could hold for late-night programs.