Jimmy Kimmel Being Pulled from Air ‘Indefinitely’ by ABC over Charlie Kirk Comments

Affiliate stations had threatened to not carry "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

Jimmy Kimmel and his late night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” are being “pre-empted indefinitely,” an ABC Spokesperson told IndieWire.

Several affiliate stations, including the largest in the country Nexstar, had objected to recent remarks by Kimmel about Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and in the wake of multiple threats, ABC and parent company Disney have taken that next step.

“Nexstar’s owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network will preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show. 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 FCC chairman Brendan Carr also threatened earlier this week fines against Disney if Kimmel was not off the air.

On Monday, Kimmel said during his monologue, “We had 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 with everything they can to score political points from it.”

Kimmel also played a clip during Tuesday’s monologue of Vice President JD Vance hosting Kirk’s show, calling Vance’s remarks on the program “complete bullshit” when the VP claimed it was a “statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the left.”

“And by statistical fact, he means complete bullshit. So much so that the Department of Justice just removed the study that showed white supremacy and violence from far-right groups is the greatest source of domestic terror and violence in the United States. Who wanted to hang the guy who was vice president before you? Was that the liberal left or the toothless army who stormed the Capitol on January 6? The President and his henchmen are doing their best to fan the flames so they can, I guess, attack people on the dangerous left. Which is it, are they dangerous? Are they a bunch of sissy pickleball players because they’re too scared to get hit by tennis balls, or a well organized, deadly team of commandos? Because they can’t be both of those things.”

Kimmel following Kirk’s death also posted on Instagram asking, “Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.”

Kimmel’s show was nominated for a Primetime Emmy this year, and Kimmel himself won an Emmy this year for hosting “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” Kimmel has been on ABC since 2003 and has twice hosted the Oscars, which also air on ABC.

It’s unclear if ABC intends to replace Kimmel with another host or would keep a late night show at all. The Kimmel news comes in the wake of Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” also ending come next year. Paramount in announcing the show’s cancellation said it was due to the amount of money the show loses, but the announcement came shortly after Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit with CBS News and “60 Minutes,” prompting some politicians to speculate that the cancellation was politically motivated.