ABC suspends Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show indefinitely over his
remarks about Charlie Kirk’s death
[September 18, 2025]
By DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK (AP) — ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show
indefinitely beginning Wednesday after comments that he made about
Charlie Kirk's killing led a group of ABC-affiliated stations to say it
would not air the show and provoked some ominous comments from a top
federal regulator.
The veteran late-night comic, made several remarks about the reaction to
the conservative activist's assassination last week on “Jimmy Kimmel
Live!” Monday and Tuesday nights, including that “many in MAGA land are
working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.”
ABC, which has aired Kimmel's late-night show since 2003, moved swiftly
after Nexstar Communications Group said it would pull the show starting
Wednesday. Kimmel's comments about Kirk's death “are offensive and
insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse,”
said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar's broadcasting division.
Nexstar operates 23 ABC affiliates.
There was no immediate comment from Kimmel, whose contract is up in May
2026. ABC's statement did not cite a reason for why his show was
preempted.
President Donald Trump celebrated ABC's move on the social media site
Truth Social, writing: “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the
courage to do what had to be done.”
Earlier in the day, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called Kimmel's comments
“truly sick” and said his agency has a strong case for holding Kimmel,
ABC and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading
misinformation. He said the comic appeared to be making an intentional
effort to mislead the public that Kirk's assassin was a right-wing Trump
supporter.
During his Monday evening monologue, Kimmel suggested Kirk’s alleged
killer, Tyler Robinson, might have been a pro-Trump Republican. “The
MAGA Gang (is) 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,” Kimmel said. “In between
the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” Carr said on
the Benny Johnson podcast. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.
These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going
to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Authorities say the 22-year-old grew up in a conservative household in
southern Utah but was enmeshed in “leftist ideology.” His parents told
investigators he had turned politically left and pro-LGBTQ rights in the
last year. His voter status is inactive, meaning he did not vote in two
regular general elections. He told his transgender partner that he
targeted Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred.”
The business landscape around late-night television
Both Disney and Nexstar have FCC business ahead of them. Disney is
seeking regulatory approval for ESPN's acquisition of the NFL Network
and Nexstar needs the Trump administration go-ahead to complete its $6.2
billion purchase of broadcast rival Tegna.
For both companies, reinstating Kimmel after a suspension would risk the
ire of Trump, who has already claimed that the show has been canceled.
While CBS said this past summer that it was canceling Colbert’s show
next May for financial reasons, some critics have wondered if his stance
on Trump played a role. Both Colbert and Kimmel have made the president
the frequent target of his jokes. Soon after the Colbert cancellation,
the FCC approved CBS parent company Paramount’s long-pending deal with
Skydance.
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People walk by the Jimmy Kimmel Live studio on Hollywood Blvd.,
Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
 Trump similarly celebrated Colbert's
impending exit. “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,” Trump
said then. “His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy
Kimmel is next.”
Within the past year, both Disney and CBS parent Paramount chose to
settle lawsuits brought by Trump against their news divisions rather
than fight it out in court.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez criticized the administration for “using
the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression” in a
post on X.
“Another media outlet withered under government pressure, ensuring
that the administration will continue to extort and exact
retribution on broadcasters and publishers who criticize it,” said
Ari Cohn, lead counsel for tech policy at the Foundation for
Individual Rights and Expression. “We cannot be a country where
late-night talk show hosts serve at the pleasure of the president.”
The scene outside Kimmel's studio after show was suspended
Kimmel departed the Hollywood theater where his show is taped about
three hours after ABC’s decision. He was seen wearing a black hat,
backpack and plaid shirt and kept his head down as he entered a
waiting vehicle.
An audience was lined up outside the theater where “Jimmy Kimmel
Live!” tapes when they were told Wednesday’s show was canceled.
“We were just about to walk in — interestingly enough, they waited
to pull the plug on this right as the studio audience was about to
walk in,” Tommy Williams, a would-be audience member from
Jacksonville, Florida, told The Associated Press outside the
theater. “They didn’t tell us what had happened. They just said that
the show was canceled.”
More of what Kimmel said on his show
Kimmel said that Trump's response to Kirk's death “is not how an
adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how
a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK?” He also said that FBI chief
Kash Patel has handled the investigation into the killing “like a
kid who didn't read the book, BSing his way through an oral report.”
He returned to the topic on Tuesday night, mocking Vice President JD
Vance's performance as guest host for Kirk's podcast.
He said Trump was “fanning the flames” by attacking people on the
left. “Which is it, are they a bunch of sissy pickleball players
because they're too scared to be hit by tennis balls, or a
well-organized deadly team of commandos, because they can't be both
of those things.”
The move comes as the president, his administration and political
party have stepped up their effort to police speech about Kirk’s
death. Vance earlier this week urged Americans to turn in fellow
citizens who mocked the assassination. It is also the latest effort
by the administration to use its power to lean on the media. Carr
has launched investigations of outlets that have angered Trump and
the president has sued numerous media organizations for negative
coverage.
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Associated Press journalists Liam McEwan and Jaimie Ding in Los
Angeles and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed reporting.
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