In the latest domino to fall amid the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on free speech, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” became the second late night franchise to be pulled — “indefinitely,” at this point — in the wake of the host’s comments Monday related to Charlie Kirk’s death.
Kimmel raised hackles on the right for criticizing the response by “the MAGA gang” to the Kirk assassination, and implying the shooter might have come from that world. That led to a rising firestorm and an open threat by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to take action against ABC and its affiliated stations. First Nexstar, which owns dozens of ABC affiliates, and then ABC parent Disney, quickly followed by pulling Kimmel off the air on Wednesday.
First Amendment advocates and political pundits quickly decried sidelining the host as the latest example of what appears to be President Trump’s efforts to silence critics. On that score, Trump and his supporters have taken what they used to deride as “cancel culture” beyond whatever leftist groups sought to impose, and in this iteration, pulling the levers of government behind the campaign.
The Kimmel situation is a perfect storm, one that combined the diminished clout of late night shows, the high-level of tension over political violence raised by Kirk’s assassination, Trump’s eagerness to go after perceived enemies and a high-stakes business scenario where regulatory concerns made the targets uniquely vulnerable.
“This is the most straightforward attack on free speech from state actors I’ve ever seen in my life and it’s not even close,” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes tweeted on X.
In his Monday night monologue, Kimmel knocked Republicans over trying to politicize Kirk’s death, citing their speculation over the weekend about alleged gunman Tyler Robinson’s political affiliations.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.
Authorities have since said that Robinson’s political beliefs were largely in line with leftist causes, prompting conservative media to attack Kimmel. That included Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump loyalist, who told a podcast Wednesday that Kimmel should be reprimanded and indicated that the FCC could act given its oversight of the licenses ABC uses to broadcast its programming. Ominously, Carr said he can “do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Not long after those remarks, Nexstar Media Group, which has more than 200 owned or partner stations in 116 U.S. markets reaching 220 million people, said it would preempt the late night show’s broadcast indefinitely, calling Kimmel’s remarks “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse.” About 30 of Nexstar stations are ABC affiliates.
“We do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values
of the local communities in which we are located,” Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said in a statement. “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.”
Adding to the intrigue, in August Nexstar agreed to acquire another station group, Tegna, for $6.2 billion, including debt and estimated transaction fees and expenses. That deal is expected to close by the second half of 2026, subject to Tegna shareholder and regulatory approvals.
Sinclair, another major station group that owns 30 ABC affiliates known for its conservative political profile, also said that it would not carry “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” “until further notice.” The company later issued a list of demands that would need to be met in order for it to reinstate the show.
Faced with the prospect of airing Kimmel without a sizable chunk of its affiliate roster – diminishing the program’s national reach for advertisers – ABC took action, with a network spokesperson telling TheWrap the show would be “pre-empted indefinitely.”
A Disney insider told TheWrap that Kimmel is not being canceled, and that instead the network is looking to take a beat and lower the temperature before seeking a way to get Kimmel back on the air. Multiple sources reported that Kimmel had planned to address the backlash to his Kirk comments tonight. He rehearsed the show earlier today, before Disney executives decided to pull the show after an emergency meeting.
Personal representatives for Kimmel did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.
The question now is what might be necessary to bring Kimmel back, whether that comes in the form of an apology or simply waiting out the political firestorm. The former would require the host cooperating — and this after Trump has threatened Kimmel will be “next” after CBS announced “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” will end in May 2026.
Colbert’s cancellation came amid the FCC’s lengthy review of Paramount and Skydance’s $8 billion merger, which officially closed in August. CBS has argued the move was “purely financial,” with insiders noting that the show was losing $40 million annually, and Skydance has claimed it was “not involved” in the decision.
Kimmel, who is friends with Colbert and shares the same agent, was harshly critical of the Colbert decision, telling Variety that the financial figures being anonymously bandied about were “nonsensical” because they failed to incorporate affiliate fees, adding, “These alleged insiders who supposedly analyze the budgets of the shows − I don’t know who they are, but I do know they don’t know what they’re talking about.”
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” Trump posted Wednesday of the host’s suspension. “Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”
After telling podcaster Benny Johnson the FCC has “remedies we can look at” regarding Kimmel, Carr applauded the news that the show was being pulled on X, saying that stations had a duty to push back against network programming if it offended community standards.
“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,” he told Johnson.
Carr said Kimmel’s comments were “some of the sickest conduct possible” and urged companies like Disney, which owns ABC, and Comcast, which owns NBC and Kimmel competitor “The Tonight Show,” to either take action or risk a federal probe into violations of the FCC’s public-interest guidelines, which could result in suspension of broadcast licenses.
Perhaps underlining the lack of sincerity behind his moves, when reached for comment on ABC’s decision to pull Kimmel off the air on Wednesday night, Carr replied to CNN’s Brian Stelter with a celebratory GIF from “The Office.”
Historically, late night comics have enjoyed free rein to criticize and mock politicians, which is considered part of the mission. Trump has argued that the left-leaning hosts don’t adhere to the “both sides” line of attack that characterized hosts like “The Tonight Show’s” Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, who recently indicated that he saw the strategy as bad for business, potentially alienating half the audience.
That said, hosts have been punished for speaking out at the wrong time in the past, most notably Bill Maher, whose ABC show “Politically Incorrect” was canceled in 2002 after remarks he made regarding the Sept. 11 attackers.
Responding to the Kimmel news, Free Press, the First Amendment advocacy group, issued a statement lambasting the administration and the network, saying, “This is nothing more than censorship and extortion. Worse still, the nation’s largest media companies are playing along. Nexstar is willing to sacrifice any semblance of independence or integrity to smooth the path for its next mega-merger. Having failed to buy off Trump with a ridiculous legal settlement last year, ABC keeps caving regardless of how meritless the administration’s claims are — and how much lasting damage they’re doing to free speech in America.”
Similarly, SAG-AFTRA, the Writers Guild of America and the Musicians Union all condemned the show being pulled as “the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone’s freedoms,” as the actors’ guild put it.
Since Kirk’s death, Trump loyalists have been on a broad crusade to police what they see as intemperate speech, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, whose remarks about punishing “hate speech” yielded blowback even from some conservatives.
Disney/ABC has already bowed to pressure from Trump once, settling a lawsuit brought over comments by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos regarding E. Jean Carroll, who won a jury verdict against Trump holding him liable for defamation and sexual abuse. The president referenced that $16 million settlement with ABC earlier this week in response to a question from ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl, warning him, “Maybe we should go after people like you.”
Notably, one of the reasons Kimmel got in hot water was because his reference to Kirk’s shooter appeared not to be accurate, a description that would also apply to Trump’s gloating Truth Social post about the host being “canceled,” while urging NBC to do the same with its late night talent.
Interviewed by MSNBC, Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, a constitutional law expert, called the administration’s pressure tactics “completely antithetical to the First Amendment,” citing Trump’s campaign of lawsuits against newspapers and networks over “trifles and insults, total sham causes of action,” while using his control of the FCC as leverage.
Whatever the consequences of that, for now, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is the latest casualty, for how long remains to be seen.
