After Stephen Colbert, another long-running show is being pulled from the plug. ABC has taken late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's popular show Jimmy Kimmel Live off air and suspended it indefinitely over his recent comments on the recent shooting of right-wing activist and close Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk.
The network owned by Walt Disney said that the show will be "pre-empted indefinitely" after his monologue criticised Republicans who allegedly politicised his shooting. "We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise 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 on Monday. He also called out the government for flying flags in half mast following his death and mocked the president's reaction to the shooting, comparing it to "a four-year-old mourning a goldfish".
Prior to this movie, Nextstar media, one of the country’s largest local TV station owners announced it would stop airing the show, with Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar's broadcasting division stating that Kimmel's comments were "offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse."
Reacting to ABC's suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live, US President Donald Trump celebrated it as a "great news for America". He said "Kimmel had zero talent" and "worse ratings than even Colbert".
Further, he had also targeted two other late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, on his social media handle Truth Social, and said they should be canceled too, calling them "two total losers on Fake News NBC." "Their ratings are also horrible," he added.
While Jimmy Kimmel has not publicly reacted to the news, sources have told Daily Mail that this was the "last straw" and he is not taking this lightly. He will soon figure out ways to get out of his contract, they said. Kimmel has been on air since 2003 and his current contract ends in 2026, but he might sign new papers elsewhere following ABC's move. The sudden decision from the network has shocked fans worldwide who criticised the move, calling out the censorship of free speech by the President.
In July, CBS announced it would stop airing The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in May 2026 after 33 years. While it was stated that it is not related to his performance or issues at Paramount, Colbert criticised the decision and accused the network of leaking financial numbers to the media. He called his parent company Paramount's $16M lawsuit settlement with Trump a "big fat bribe." It came after the President sued the network for its hour-long interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris last year.
The settlement followed an earlier agreement in which Disney-owned ABC News paid $15 million to Trump to resolve a defamation lawsuit. The case stemmed from anchor George Stephanopoulos repeatedly and falsely claiming in an interview that the former president had been found "liable for rape."
Both Kimmel and Colbert's shows were cancelled after their repeated criticism of the Trump administration. The President has repeatedly put pressure on networks to stop airing content that he has found objectionable and used his power to take off licenses from stations that fail to comply to rules.
Kimmel had presented multiple shows on ABC including Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, for which he recently won an Emmy. He had also presented the Oscars.
31-year-old Kirk was shot in Utah last week and died on spot. A 22-year-old suspect Tyler Robinson appeared in court charged with aggravated murder for the shooting.
