Jimmy Kimmel appears to be the second late-night host in the U.S. to succumb to the Trump Administration’s influence over media.
ABC announced Wednesday that Jimmy Kimmel Live! “will be pre-empted indefinitely” after TV station operator Nexstar Media Group, which owns a number of ABC affiliates across the nation, said it would preempt Kimmel’s show on its stations “for the foreseeable future.”
In a statement, Nexstar said it “strongly objects” to comments Kimmel recently made after the death of conservative activist 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,” Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said in the 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 preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”
In his opening monologue Monday night, Kimmel said the “MAGA gang” was trying to “score political points” from Kirk’s assassination.
Kimmel also made fun of President Donald Trump’s response to a reporter’s question about Kirk’s death, to which the President responded by focusing on the ongoing construction of a new ballroom at the White House. “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend,” Kimmel said. “This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
Rolling Stone reported that, in the hours leading up to the decision to pull Kimmel’s show off the air, senior executives at ABC, Disney, and affiliates “convened emergency meetings to figure out how to minimize the damage,” and while “multiple execs felt that Kimmel had not actually said anything over the line,” sources told the magazine that “the threat of Trump administration retaliation loomed.”
It’s also not clear if Kimmel will ever return to air on the network. “A source close to the situation tells me that this is not a cancellation at the moment, but there was no timeline for the show to come back,” CNN entertainment reporter Elizabeth Wagmeister reported Wednesday evening. “People in the industry are absolutely shocked over this. And many people are saying that even though it’s not a cancellation at this moment, it’s hard to imagine the show coming back. This is not about one comment about Charlie Kirk’s killer. This is a decade of Jimmy Kimmel bashing Trump. They’ve been going back and forth for years. So it’s really hard to imagine Trump rolling out the red carpet and saying, ‘Hey, you’ve taken a break. Why don’t you come back on the air?’”
The White House, via its rapid response account on X, posted about ABC’s decision: “They’re doing their viewers a favor. Jimmy is a sick freak!”
Earlier Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened regulatory action against Kimmel, ABC, and Disney, calling Kimmel’s conduct “really, really sick.”
After Nexstar, which is currently seeking the FCC’s approval of a multibillion-dollar acquisition of broadcast rival TEGNA, announced its move against Kimmel, Carr posted on X, thanking Nexstar for “doing the right thing” and saying he hoped other broadcasters would “follow Nexstar’s lead.”
Sinclair Broadcast Group, another owner and operator of many ABC affiliates, said in a statement that Kimmel’s “suspension is not enough” and that it will not return Jimmy Kimmel Live! to air on its stations “until we are confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform.”
“Mr. Kimmel’s remarks were inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country,” Sinclair vice chairman Jason Smith said in the statement. “We believe broadcasters have a responsibility to educate and elevate respectful, constructive dialogue in our communities. We appreciate FCC Chairman Carr’s remarks today and this incident highlights the critical need for the FCC to take immediate regulatory action to address control held over local broadcasters by the big national networks.”
Sinclair called on ABC to have formal discussions regarding its commitment to professionalism and accountability and on Kimmel to apologize to the Kirk family and to “make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA.”
Many on the right, including Trump, have blamed Kirk’s death on leftist rhetoric and called for those who they deemed to have celebrated his death or otherwise made offensive comments about it to face employment-related and other consequences, although it has prompted some backlash from civil liberties advocates.
“The government pressured ABC — and ABC caved. The timing of ABC’s decision, on the heels of the FCC chairman’s pledge to the network to ‘do this the easy way or the hard way,’ tells the whole story. Another media outlet withered under government pressure, ensuring that the administration will continue to extort and exact retribution on broadcasters and publishers who criticize it,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonpartisan nonprofit that has criticized both left and right over free-speech issues, posted on X. “We cannot be a country where late night talk show hosts serve at the pleasure of the president. But until institutions grow a backbone and learn to resist government pressure, that is the country we are.”
The pulling of Kimmel off the air comes less than nine weeks after CBS announced that The Late Show With Stephen Colbert would end after its current season—a decision that was widely viewed as politically motivated.
Trump, who has frequently attacked Kimmel’s show and other late-night programs and their hosts in the past, appeared to celebrate ABC’s decision. “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” the President posted Wednesday night on Truth Social. “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.” (While linear ratings are only one metric of a show’s success, Jimmy Kimmel Live! had the second-highest overall ratings among its late-night peers, only behind The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, in Q2 of this year, while it had the highest ratings in the key 18-49 demographic.)
“That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC,” Trump added, appearing to urge the cancellation of NBC’s other late-night programs hosted by Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. “Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”
