Is Jimmy Kimmel Canceled? ABC Pulls Host Off Air After Charlie Kirk Comments

In a stunning move, ABC has suspended the late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely. The decision came on Wednesday evening following a massive backlash over host Jimmy Kimmel’s comments about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. While a direct cause for the suspension was not stated by the network, the move followed mounting pressure from conservative media, Republican politicians, and key broadcast affiliates.

The abrupt decision has many questioning if Jimmy Kimmel was fired and marks the latest major shift in a late-night television landscape facing increasing political pressure.

What Did Jimmy Kimmel Say About Charlie Kirk?

The controversy began during Kimmel’s opening monologue on Monday night as he addressed the fallout from the murder of Charlie Kirk in Utah. In his monologue, Jimmy Kimmel mocked the political reactions to the killing and made comments that drew immediate condemnation.

Specifically, what did Kimmel say? He stated, “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.”

This specific comment mischaracterized the political beliefs of the accused shooter, Tyler Robinson. While prosecutors stated Robinson wrote in private messages about Kirk’s “hatred,” his mother told authorities that her son had recently shifted to the political left.

Political Pressure from the FCC and Affiliates

The backlash against Jimmy Kimmel’s Charlie Kirk comments was swift and powerful. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr, publicly assailed Kimmel and ABC, suggesting the regulatory agency could take action against the network.

In a podcast interview, Carr said that the FCC was “going to have remedies that we can look at,” adding a warning to broadcasters: “Frankly, when you see stuff like this — I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the F.C.C. ahead.”

The pressure extended beyond the federal government. Nexstar, which owns many ABC affiliate stations, announced it would pre-empt Kimmel’s program “for the foreseeable future.” Soon after, Sinclair, another major affiliate owner, also announced it would suspend the show. Sinclair’s statement went even further, calling on Kimmel to apologize to the Kirk family and donate to Turning Point USA.

The combined force of these actions led Disney executives to suspend the show before its Wednesday taping, a decision that was celebrated on social media by President Trump, who falsely claimed the show had been “canceled.”

The Broader Impact on Late-Night Television

The suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the latest in a series of events that have shaken the late-night television world. It comes on the heels of the surprise cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s long-running show The Late Show on CBS just last July. While CBS cited financial reasons for that decision, many in the industry speculated it was also done to curry favor with the Trump administration.

Both Kimmel and Colbert have been frequent critics of President Trump, and the swift actions by broadcast companies and government officials have raised concerns about political pressure and its effect on free speech.

The question of whether Kimmel’s show will ever return remains unanswered, but the incident has once again highlighted the complex and often contentious relationship between network programming, political commentary, and the power of the government and corporations.