ABC to indefinitely halt Jimmy Kimmel Live! after Charlie Kirk remarks

United States television network ABC has announced it will indefinitely cease airing Jimmy Kimmel Live due to comments made by the popular chat show’s host about the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

Walt Disney-owned ABC said on Wednesday the show would be “preempted indefinitely” due to Kimmel’s comments suggesting the man charged with Kirk’s assassination in Utah last week, Tyler Robinson, is a supporter of US President Donald Trump.

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“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise 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 on Monday in a monologue on his long-running late-night talk show.

Earlier, Nexstar Media, one of the country’s largest local TV station owners, including at least 28 ABC affiliates, announced it would stop airing the show over Kimmel’s remarks about the Kirk killing.

Announcing the move, Nexstar Media President Andrew Alford said Kimmel’s comments were “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse”.

“We do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” he said.

While Utah prosecutors have formally charged Robinson with the murder of Charlie Kirk and said they will seek the death penalty, questions remain about a possible motive.

Kimmel’s comments also drew condemnation on Wednesday from Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the independent US government TV, radio and internet regulator.

In an interview with right-wing YouTuber Benny Johnson, Carr described Kimmel’s comments as “the sickest conduct possible”, and he also appeared to threaten ABC affiliate licences over the presenter’s remarks.

“What people don’t understand is that the broadcasters … have a licence granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest,” Carr said.

Carr explicitly called on ABC affiliates to “push back” on the network’s airing of Jimmy Kimmel Live as they run the risk of ” licence revocation” due to a “pattern of news distortion”.

Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro said it was important to note that Kimmel is a household name in the US where many people have watched his talk show for over 20 years.

“What he said on Monday, was he suggested the suspected shooter of Charlie Kirk was a pro-Trump Republican,” Zhou-Castro said, adding that Kimmel made his remarks before authorities released text messages that appeared to confirm that the suspected killer was in fact opposed, politically, to Kirk.

The fallout from Kimmel’s comment was rapid and grew until the Trump-appointed chair of the FCC, which regulates all broadcasts in the US, demanded action be taken against the host.

Kimmel is not alone in being sanctioned for comments in the aftermath of the Kirk killing.

“There have been notable journalists as well as analysts and also just everyday people who have lost their jobs because of comments they made about Charlie Kirk’s death,” Zhou-Castro said.

“In fact, the US Vice President JD Vance advocated for people to report on each other to their employers if anyone said something on social media, etcetera, that seemed to disparage Kirk,” she said.

Following news of Kimmel’s cancellation on Nexstar, FCC Chairman Carr told The Hollywood Reporter news outlet he wanted to thank the firm “for doing the right thing”.

At least one other station group had contacted ABC about the Kimmel show, suggesting that an affiliate revolt may have played a role in the decision, an unnamed source told The Hollywood Reporter.

Kimmel’s cancellation is the latest in a spate of firings over the past week, brought on by a conservative backlash to public comments about Kirk’s killing that have been deemed insensitive.

Conservatives have mourned Kirk as a martyr who championed patriotism, open debate and Christian values. Others have rebuked his divisive views, including on immigration and Islamophobia, with some also celebrating his death.

Journalists, academics and doctors are among those who have been fired or investigated by their employers over comments made about Kirk, mirroring the much-maligned cancellation campaigns of recent years associated with America’s left and sparking debate over the limits of free speech in the US.