Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro admitted that Jimmy Kimmel’s temporary dismissal from ABC poses an “interesting question” in regards to President Donald Trump’s potential involvement.
“Whether he ever comes back, due to public pressure or whether it’s due to the Trump administration is an interesting question,” Shapiro said during a Thursday appearance on Fox News with Harris Faulkner.
“The reality is that he’s been awful at his job for full-on a decade, his ratings are terrible, he’s become not a comedian,” he continued. “Affiliates looking at Jimmy Kimmel at this point and saying, ‘We don’t wish to be associated with Jimmy Kimmel’s program.’ That is perfectly well within the ambit that affiliates very often do when they don’t like the programming or they don’t like the things that, particularly, hosts are saying.”
Shapiro’s remarks comes in response to ABC deciding to temporarily suspend Kimmel’s late night program “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” over the comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s killer on his Monday show.
As TheWrap previously reported, 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.
Shapiro’s first reaction to Kimmel’s removal was actually just shock that it “took 10 years for the public to sound off on how much Jimmy Kimmel sucks.”
As for Kimmel’s possible return, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said that a suspension is “not enough” and that the host will have to issue an apology. Sinclair, meanwhile, is set to replace Kimmel’s timeslot this Friday with a special tribute to Kirk.
“Sinclair has made very clear about their feelings about Jimmy Kimmel,” Shapiro noted. “They said they’re going to replace his show on the air this Friday with an hour-long tribute to Charlie Kirk, which is exactly the right move. I would not be shocked at all if that tribute receives significantly higher ratings than Jimmy Kimmel’s show did in that slot.”
