Jimmy Kimmel‘s latest monologue has ignited a political firestorm and resulted in ABC suspending the show.
Kimmel’s comments about the Charlie Kirk shooting during Tuesday’s show drew condemnation from Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr. That, in turn, prompted one group of ABC affiliates, owned by Nexstar Media Group, to declare they will not air Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the immediate future, which then led ABC to announce the show was being taken off the air “indefinitely.”
The uproar started after Kimmel said suspected Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson was a MAGA Republican. “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,” Kimmel said.
Carr was interviewed by YouTuber Benny Johnson on Wednesday (video also below), where he appeared to threaten ABC affiliate licenses over the comments, which he called “the sickest conduct possible.”
“[This] appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into the narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person,” Carr said. “What people don’t understand is that the broadcasters … have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest. When we see stuff like this, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Johnson said he’d like to see an apology from Kimmel to Kirk and his family and asked Carr what other punitive steps the FCC might take.
“I think what you said strikes me as a very reasonable, minimal step that can be taken,” Carr said. “Calls for Kimmel to be fired — I think, you could certainly see a path forward for a suspension over this. You know, the FCC is going to have remedies.”
Carr then ran down some of the media earthquakes that have transpired under the second Trump administration, from Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show being canceled next year, to NPR and PBS being defunded, to CBS News taking steps to be more “fact based.”
“So I think you see some lashing out from people like Kimmel, who are frankly talentless and are looking for ways to get attention,” he said. “Their grip on the narrative is slipping. That doesn’t mean that it’s not still important to hold the public interest standard … We have a rule on the book that interprets the public interest standard that says ‘news distortion’ is something that is prohibited … the FCC has stepped back from enforcing it … I think it’s past time these [affiliates] themselves push back on Comcast and this and say, ‘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.’ So I think again, Disney needs to see some change here.” (Note: Comcast owns NBC Universal; Disney owns ABC.)
Nexstar then issued the following statement in response to Carr’s comments: “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.” Nexstar currently operates 28 ABC affiliates across the country, mostly in small or midsize markets, though they include the ABC stations in New Orleans and Salt Lake City.
“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,” added 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.”
The affiliate group pulling Kimmel was quickly followed by ABC announcing the show had been suspended. A network spokesperson said Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be “pre-empted indefinitely.”
Yet Carr’s tactics drew fire from within the department itself as FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez responded on social media by criticizing the Chair’s threats.
“An inexcusable act of political violence by one disturbed individual must never be exploited as justification for broader censorship or control,” Gomez wrote. “This Administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression, not because it glorifies violence or breaks the law, but because it challenges those in power or reflects views they oppose. We must stand firm against every attempt to silence dissent, punish satirists and government critics, and erode individual liberty. To surrender our right to speak freely is to accept that those in power, not the people, will set the boundaries of debate that define a free society.”
