US ABC pulls Jimmy Kimmel Live off air over Charlie Kirk comments
Jimmy Kimmel on air for the last time before the show was pulled
US broadcast network ABC has pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s long-running late night show after threats from the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over comments he made about slain conservative Charlie Kirk.
Kirk, a prominent conservative activist, was shot and killed on September 10 during a debate at Utah Valley University. Authorities announced the arrest of suspected shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, three days later. Robinson has been charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm, and witness tampering, and could face the death penalty.
In his Monday night monologue, Kimmel mocked US President Donald Trump’s response to Kirk’s death, and said the “MAGA gang” was “trying to characterise this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them”. He claimed that Republicans were hitting “new lows” in trying to suggest Robinson wasn’t a part of the “MAGA” crowd.
Prior to his on-air monologue, Kimmel had posted a statement on social media condemning the shooting.
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ABC’s decision to suspend Kimmel’s show “indefinitely” came after one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the US, Nexstar Media Group, announced it would “preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future” due to the comments he made.
“Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets,” the company said in a statement.
Before Nexstar took action, FCC chair Brendan Carr had urged local broadcasters to stop airing the show, saying they were “running the possibility of fines or licensed revocation from the FCC”. Carr, a close ally of Trump, claimed the FCC could pursue news distortion allegations against the local licensees, during an appearance on right-wing commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast.
Anna Gomez, the sole Democratic member of the FCC, condemned Carr’s remarks on X, saying he was leveraging Kirk’s death “as justification for broader censorship and control”.
“This Administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression,” she wrote. “And it is doing so not because speech glorifies violence or breaks the law, but because it challenges those in power or reflects views they oppose.”
Jimmy Kimmel Live has been running for 22 years, and his current contract with ABC expires in May of 2026. Kimmel has not yet issued any statement.
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The show’s suspension comes days after Trump sued the New York Times and Penguin Random House for defamation, alleging both publishers ran lies designed to thwart his 2024 election bid. He has sought US$15 billion in damages. The president has also sued the Wall Street Journal for defamation (for US$10 billion) in relation to articles about his relationship with dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Kimmel’s late show peer Stephen Colbert was also cancelled this year, after a 32-year run.
Stephen Colbert
The decision to end the TV institution after more than three decades came two days after Colbert called a US$16 million settlement between CBS parent company Paramount and Trump a “big fat bribe” in order to get FCC approval for the Skydance-Paramount merger.
Trump filed suit against CBS and Paramount in October 2024, following a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris that Trump claimed was edited to show the candidate in a positive light.
The US$10 billion lawsuit was widely considered “frivolous”, but the network still settled out of court, fuelling accusations that it was attempting to curry favour with the President as it awaited approval for the AU$12.2 billion merger.
CBS’ boss George Cheeks insisted the cancellation was because of a decline in advertising.
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