ABC announced Wednesday that it is pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live! from its schedule “indefinitely” after Nexstar Media Group—one of the largest owners of local TV stations in the U.S.—said it would no longer air the show in its ABC-affiliated markets following remarks Kimmel made Monday about the alleged killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Less than an hour before ABC pulled the show, Nextsar announced that its “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.” The company said it “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.”
Kirk, a prominent conservative figure, was shot and killed on September 10 during a debate at Utah Valley University. Authorities announced the arrest of a suspected shooter three days later.
In his Monday night monologue, Kimmel said the “MAGA gang” was “trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” accusing conservatives of trying to score political points off Kirk’s death.
These are the comments from Monday night that led ABC to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live this afernoon. pic.twitter.com/TzOU3GZ195
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) September 17, 2025
Kimmel had been the subject of mounting criticism in right-wing media over the last 48 hours. Earlier this afternoon FCC Chair Brendan Carr suggested in an interview that Kimmel could face sanctions from the FCC for his comments.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said on Benny Johnson’s Benny Show podcast Wednesday afternoon. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel—or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Carr, a close ally of President Trump, suggested that Disney, ABC’s parent company, should address Kimmel’s comments before the FCC gets involved, suggesting Kimmel could be suspended. “You could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this,” Carr said.
He went on to urge local network affiliates for ABC and NBC to take action against the networks.
“Frankly I think it’s past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney, and say, ‘We are going to preempt—we are not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out,’” Carr said. “It’s time for them to step up and say this garbage—to the extent that that’s what comes down the pipe in the future—isn’t something that serves the needs of our local communities.”
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.”
It was not immediately clear whether there is a path forward for Kimmel and his 22 year-old show at ABC. His current contract with the network expires in May of 2026.
He flew too close to the sun over something that has been already be said numerous times already, and now here we are. A bummer, but this is why sometimes you need to keep your mouth SHUT about certain things.
The worst part about this is now, if this is really the end for Kimmel, that only leaves JIMMY FUCKING FALLON as the only one unaffected by this whole Trump late night mess, and that’s the real tragedy. Well, at-least we still have Seth Meyers for now.
>>>>sometimes you need to keep your mouth SHUT about certain things.
OK, Mr. Censor. We’ll have you check all scripts to make sure they don’t offend anyone.
All I meant by that was just to not say about like that about Charlie Kirk’s murder. I agree with what he said, that his murderer was a right winger, but you, I, and Kimmel all know how delicate and controversial of a subject this whole mess is, and while Kimmel’s remarks have truth to them, it wasn’t wise of him to blurt that out on national TV. Even Colbert wasn’t stupid enough to talk about Kirk’s murder like that on his show.
Again, I absolutely do not agree with Disney, ABC or the FCC on canceling Kimmel, but Kimmel should’ve seen the risks associated with talking about a subject as divisive and bizarre as Charlie Kirk, and the reactions of his powerful corrupt friends up in Washington.
No one should keep their mouth shut about anything, especially about these bozos cynically using their own “friend”‘s death. Poor taste (in your seeming opinion) is not against the law; in fact, political careers are now built on it.
Did a bot beat the captcha? You said Jimmy Fallon was the only latenighter unaffected and then said we have Seth Meyers in the next sentence.
Look, I agree with what Kimmel had to say, and he isn’t in the wrong for saying it, but since it’s becoming very clear that MAGA is willing to do a lot more just talk trash online, including resorting to murdering people of the other side, and even their own people. I don’t think it’s very wise for anyone who has as large a national platform as Jimmy Kimmel to be engaging on the topic of Charlie Kirk’s murder. I understand it’s funny to paint them as deranged lunatics who spend their lives worshiping an orange politician (which they are), but the MAGA-Maniacs, especially the ones in office, are much more dangerous than we like to believe them to be. As I mentioned before, they are willing to throw their whole lives away in order to fulfill their fantasies of giving people they disagree with their comeuppance, but in addition, the administration is more than happy to turn a blind eye when a MAGA goes rogue, hell, sometimes they’ll even pardon them, so they’ll very likely either gonna get no punishment whatsoever, or they’ll get a slap on the wrist, and then they can repeat their crimes over and over again.
I’ve had the assertion in my head for quite some time after Charlie’s death that something like this would happen if any of the late night tv shows decided to realm into this territory of Charlie’s murder, and it seems that it played out exactly how I imagined it would, thats why I was so blunt about Kimmel keeping his mouth shut about SOME THINGS, but not EVERYTHING.
Also, yeah, I should’ve been more specific about Fallon and Meyers. Fallon is final 11:35 guy left, Seth is also still with us, but he’s at 12:37, and he’s pretty easily forgotten about anyway.
Also sorry for all the typos and stuff. Its getting late at the time I write this, and I’m tired, I really am.
And just what the fuck does that tell you? That ABC/Disney didn’t want their talent to be talking about Charlie Kirk’s death, because they’re trying to sanewash him into this charismatic speaker who only wanted free speech for everyone, instead of what he really is, which is a racist, sexist, misogynistic, anti Semitic, Islamophobic, homophobic bully who debates naive kids in order to make himself look smart to the world!
Fuck that fucking bullshit! If you got a problem with that, then target it at ABC/Disney, and not Kimmel! They, and the rest of the Liberally Biased Mainstream Media™ are sinking to new lows in their abdication of guardians of democracy!
While Roseanne must be smiling somewhere at this news. I have to say this: between this and Steven Colbert’s firing, it seems that late-night talk shows will only exist if the hosts are willing to kowtow to the current administration. Truly the end of an era, in more ways than one.
And I have a feeling that Nexstar also needs approval for their merger with Tegna (sound familiar?) over these comments.
bump
Now I am really REALLY interested to what Jon Stewart will say on Monday about all this.
If I was him, I’d be making plans to be on TONIGHT.
I remember hearing about how tv stations critical of Putin in the early days of his administration would be either shut down or forced to change their tune. Eventually, all media was state-run. Don’t know why that popped in my head just now…
Cowardly ABC is pulling a great person like Kimmel because of Chukie Kirk.
Kimmel is entertaining and a relief from maga bullshit.
WRONG MOVE, you can’t be trusted . No more Always Being Cowardly TV.
No robot responses, please.
Today in competitive authoritarianism.
How horrible. The “free speech” zealots are not comfortable with any speech that doesn’t fit their “free speech” straight jackets
Are you two for real? We’re you in caves during the biden administration or did you miss Zuckerberg saying that they came to him asking him to censors those who disagreed with the Covid vaccine and the policies as disinformation, which he had no problems. You two are just the tip of the hypocrite ms out there. Imbeciles.
lmao people died because of Covid misinformation. Accurate health info is more important the Orange Julius’s feelings.
Cry harder for us, you fucking retarded cunt!
Christ this is like the MSNBC Dowd situation all over again, only this time it indefinitely shuts down an entire show
Not to mention Nexstar, the bane of the CW buyout, is involved in this~
I am very concerned that the state is trying to control any critics, but that doesn’t mean Kimmel should shut up and be complicit as one commenter bluntly put it. This is a truly bleak development that should be confronted by Kimmel and his team~
And to ABC: you can rot in hell with CBS if you don’t protect Kimmel and keep his show on~
Certainly no loss. He kept crossing the line like Colbert. Not tolerable any longer. Jimmy Kimmel is next.
My bad. Jimmy Fallon is next
Willing to predict that it will be Seth Meyers before Fallon.
You bad, cuz yer a loser!
lol ok. tolerable lol
Why the fuck do you hate freedom of speech, you fucking retarded cunt?
What happened to free speech.Never had many problems till last election.Can we redo it?
Roseanne Barr also asks “What happened to free speech”?
Look at the retarded cunt, people! it can’t stand the fact that people he admires are actually pieces of shit! Says a lot about that loser, doesn’t it?
Insane. I think of news satire as the canary in the coalmine for speech, and they’re getting the black lung. There is also a political economy facet to the story in Nexstar’s planned merger with TEGNA to create a monopoly reaching 80% of the broadcast station market. Capitulating to Trump (or seemingly openly supporting him) by silencing his detractors greases the palms for the quasi-executive FCC to allow the merger and deregulate media ownership even further. While Trump trades American microchips for billions in Saudi crypto the same week. Insane.
Don’t let the door hit ya. I stopped watching years ago because of his obsession and nightly whining about Trump.
That’s because you’re a scumbag of a loser with no sense of humor!
You’re welcome, shithole!
Wow, like that wasn’t long overdue.
Eat shit, bitch hole!
‘MAGA gang” was “trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them’
Is anybody at Late Nighter going to acknowledge that Jimmy Kimmel with his monologue lied about the accused shooter?
You seem to be confused about the concept of linear time. Check when Kimmel said that versus the timeline of the investigation. It appears IN HINDSIGHT that he was *incorrect* (if that’s what he meant, which I don’t think he did) not a “liar”.
My read of what he said is not that he knew or was accusing that the shooter was MAGA. He was stating that the Right was capitalizing on the event and accusing any moving target that wasn’t from their camp *before the shooter’s motives were known*. As a regular viewer of his monologue, that read seems more like KImmel.
Another falsehood.
He deliberately said Charlie Kirk’s killer was a conservative when by Monday night this was known to be a total lie.
Stop trying to gaslight.
And now, this insufferable cunt is doubling down on his ignorance by still trying to claim the shooter was indoctrinated into the world of trans people and wanted to kill Charlie Kirk for this made up person MAGA so badly wants to shove down people’s throats so that they can begin their pogrom of wiping out gay people, and other people that gives this racist fuckface a sad!
Isn’t this loser despicable, people?🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Amazing isn’t it? This Drumpf licking shit for brains is your standard typical MAGAt! It does nothing but shit lies and projects their side’s sins onto their enemies! You almost feel sorry for it, if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s an insufferable lil’ cunt!
More MAGA censorship. When will it stop? Trump said he’s going after Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers next.
What is the name of the Mafia in the White House?
Eat shit and die, ABC/Disney!🖕😠🖕
And Jack Paar was censored for saying water closet in 1960.
Kirk was a polarizing person and he made millions because of it. He was mean and unkind in the name Christianity. Seems free speech only works for the far right.