ABC has suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely after comments that he made about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing led a group of ABC-affiliated stations to say it would not air the show.
Kimmel, the veteran late-night comic, made several comments about the reaction to Kirk’s assassination on his show on September 15 and 16. He said 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.
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.”
He also targeted two other late-night hosts, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, and said they should be canceled too, calling them “two total losers.”
Kimmel’s contract is up at the end of next season, which ends in May 2026.
After ABC’s announcement, White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich posted on X: “Welcome to Consequence Culture. Normal, common sense Americans are no longer taking the b———- and companies like ABC are finally willing to do the right and reasonable thing.”
In his monologue on September 15, Kimmel said, “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 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, okay?” He also said that FBI chief Kash Patel has handled the investigation into the murder “like a kid who didn’t read the book, BS’ing his way through an oral report.”
He returned to the topic the following 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.”
Authorities say Tyler Robinson, 22, who is charged with killing Kirk, 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. Utah records show he was registered as a voter, but not affiliated with either political party. 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.”
Kimmel, like CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert, has consistently been critical of Trump and many of his policies on his ABC show. CBS said this past summer that it was canceling Colbert’s show at the end of this season for financial reasons, although some critics have wondered if his stance on Trump played a role.
—By David Bauder, AP Media Writer