ABC pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from its airwaves indefinitely on Wednesday, just hours after the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, threatened to take action against the network and its parent company over a recent segment concerning the death of Charlie Kirk.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely,” an ABC spokesperson told Deadline.
The decision comes after Kimmel on his program speculated about the shooter’s political affiliation.
“The MAGA gang (is) 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. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”
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In an interview released Wednesday with right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson, Carr claimed Kimmel’s remark was part of a concerted effort to lie to the American people about the nature of Kirk’s death.
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” Carr said. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Within hours of Carr’s interview with Johnson being released, Nexstar Media Group, which owns a number of ABC affiliate stations across the country, said it would be preempting Kimmel’s program. In a press release announcing the decision, the company said it “strongly objects” to the late-night host’s remarks.
“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, the president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said.
Notably, Nexstar is currently undergoing the FCC approval process for a more than $6-billion acquisition of Tegna Inc., the Virginia-based media company created out of the 2015 split of Gannett Co.
“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,” Alford said.
In response to the show’s cancellation, Carr thanked Nexstar for “doing the right thing.”
“Local broadcasters have an obligation to serve the public interest,” Carr posted to X. “While this may be an unprecedented decision, it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community values.”
President Donald Trump, who has had a years-long feud with the late-night host, celebrated the move to take Kimmel off the air, posting to Truth Social just after 1 a.m. local time in London after a state visit with the British royal family.
He also set his sights on a pair of new targets: late-night-show hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.
“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,” read the post. “That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”
Free speech groups, however, immediately decried the move.
“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,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression posted to X. “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.”
In another X post, the FCC’s only Democratic commissioner, Anna M. Gomez, said that the Trump administration “is increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression.”
“An inexcusable act of political violence by one disturbed individual must never be exploited as justification for broader censorship and control,” Gomez posted. “To surrender our right to speak freely is to accept that those in power, not the people, will set the boundaries of debate that define a free society.”
Trump signaled his intentions to go after Kimmel in late July after CBS cancelled “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” during its parent company’s merger negotiations, which also needed FCC approval.
“Next up will be an even less talented Jimmy Kimmel, and then, a weak, and very insecure, Jimmy Fallon,” Trump wrote on July 29. “The only real question is, who will go first?”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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