Jimmy Kimmel‘s late night talk show is being suspended by ABC over his viral comments about Charlie Kirk.
A network spokesperson said Wednesday that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be “preempted indefinitely.”
The network’s action came just after Nexstar, one of the biggest owners of local TV stations in the country — including 28 ABC affiliates — said it will preempt the series for the immediate future. A source said that ABC had also heard from at least one other station group about the show, suggesting that an affiliate revolt may have played a role in the decision.
The dramatic move follows Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr threatening to take action against ABC affiliates in the wake of Kimmel suggesting the Kirk shooting suspect was a MAGA Republican during a monologue earlier this week.
A source tells The Hollywood Reporter Kimmel was prepared to address the backlash on Wednesday night’s show. He planned to explain what he said and demonstrate how it was taken out of context.
When asked by THR, the source said that Kimmel was not planning on apologizing. He felt that what he said did not require an apology.
“I want to thank Nexstar for doing the right thing,” Carr told THR. “Local broadcasters have an obligation to serve the public interest. While this may be an unprecedented decision, it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community values. I hope that other broadcasters follow Nexstar’s lead.”
Kimmel’s original comments were as follows: “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.”
Then on Wednesday, Carr went on a podcast where he slammed Kimmel and declared that affiliates should “push back” on ABC and say, in effect, “Listen, we’re not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we’re running the possibility of license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion.”
Nexstar issued a statement late Wednesday they would not air tonight’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and would preempt the show for the foreseeable future.
“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division. “Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”
Nexstar currently operates mostly in small or midsize markets, though they include the ABC stations in New Orleans and Salt Lake City.
The decision by Nexstar comes as the broadcast station is seeking FCC approval for its $6.2 billion mega deal to acquire Tegna, a deal that would make Nexstar by far the largest owner of local TV stations in the country.
The FCC would have to raise the 40 percent ownership cap in order to let the deal advance. It is not clear if Tegna will follow Nexstar’s decision. Tegna operates 13 ABC stations, including in Austin and Sacramento.
Late Wednesday, Sinclair, which owns more ABC stations than any other affiliate group (including the ABC station in Washington D.C.), said that it would run a tribute to Kirk during Kimmel’s timeslot on Friday.
Sinclair also called on Kimmel to apologize to the Kirk family, and said that it would not air his show even if ABC brings it back, “until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability.”
Carr has used his perch to launch investigations into broadcasters that have caught the ire of President Trump, with their DEI policies the most frequent target. However, he has also sent letters about select content, and the FCC investigation into last year’s CBS 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris remains open.
During a Wednesday segment on FOX News’ Hannity following the news of Kimmel’s suspension, Carr said, “Late night shows, something’s gone seriously awry there. They went from going for applause, from laugh lines to applause lines. They went from being court gestures that would make fun of everybody in power to being court clerics and enforcing a very narrow political ideology.”
“And Nexstar stood up and said, ‘Look, we have the license, and we don’t want to run this anymore. We don’t think it serves the interests of our community.’ Sinclair did the same thing,” he added. “So, there’s more work to go, but I’m very glad to see that America’s broadcasters are standing up to serve the interests of their community. We don’t just have this progressive foie gras coming out from New York and Hollywood.”
