ABC pulls Jimmy Kimmel Live indefinitely after host's Charlie Kirk commentary

( Post Millennial )

Late night host Jimmy Kimmel is officially off the air. Disney's ABC pulled the comedian's show after comments he made on his Monday night show claiming that Charlie Kirk's assassin was a right-winger.

The show is off the air "indefinitely," per Variety. Nextstar Media said they have plans to pre-empt the show going forward, which spurred ABC to make the move. The cancelation begins on Wednesday night. 

In response to Kimmel's commentary and goading his audience to laugh at the killing, Nextstar said the company "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."

On Monday, Kimmel had said that the "MAGA gang" was "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."

After Kirk was killed, leftist pundits clamored to distance their ideology from the killer, claiming that the person who fired the shot, suspected to be Tyler Robinson, was a far-right individual who didn't think Kirk was right-wing enough. That was proven entirely false.

The suspected killer is a far-leftist who was involved in a romantic relationship with a male transgender individual. Robinson said in text messages and to family members that he hated Kirk and claimed Kirk was filled with "hate."

Kirk was killed on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah while engaging with students in free and open debate. The suspect was turned in by his own parents after they recognized him from released FBI footage.

The full statement from Nextstar reads:

Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXST), today announced that the company's owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network would 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.

"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," said 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."

Kimmel has long been a critic of President Donald Trump, who was a good friend to Kirk. Kimmel also has taken aim at supporters of the president. As for his comedy, in a 2024 interview with Rolling Stone, Kimmel said, "I don’t put limits on what I laugh at. But for me personally, as I’ve grown older, as I’ve matured, I won’t make a joke that I wouldn’t make if a person of that color or persuasion was in the room."

Brian Stelter was made upset by this cancelation, saying "We're talking about comedy. This is so serious, Erin. America is a less free place. If late night comedians cannot do and say what they want—of course they can be tuned out, people can change the channel. That's how we vote. That's how we have our say in America."

"But this really does have a chilling effect across the American media," he went on, "and it's not just me saying it. We've heard from the group FIRE in the past few minutes, the Free Speech group fire saying, 'the government pressured ABC, and ABC caved.'

"We cannot be a country where late night talk show hosts serve at the pleasure of the President," Stelter said, totally unaware of the irony that the Biden administration essentially dictated terms to social media companies.

"But until institutions grow a backbone and learn to resist government pressure that is the country we are. And just one more note, Erin, I've heard from Brendan Carr in the past few minutes," Stelter said, referencing the FCC Chair.

"He's very pleased about Nextstar deciding to preempt the show. He has not officially reacted to ABCs decision yet, but when I told him about ABC News decision to go ahead and basically this is a cancelation unless the show ever comes back, he did send me a gif. He sent me a celebratory meme as his reaction, Erin."