Disney’s ABC announced Wednesday that it is indefinitely pulling Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show following his remarks about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
The move comes after one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the U.S., Nexstar Media Group, said Wednesday it had decided to preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from its owned and partner ABC-affiliated stations. In a press release, Nexstar Broadcasting Division President Andrew Alford called Kimmel’s comments “offensive and insensitive” and said the decision was made to “let cooler heads prevail.”
“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,” Alford said.
“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,” Alford added.
According to CNBC, an ABC spokesman told the outlet that the show will be “pre-empted indefinitely.”
During his Monday evening monologue to the audience, Kimmel said the “MAGA gang” had hit “new lows,” as he claimed that Republicans had attempted to characterize Kirk’s alleged assassin as “anything other than one of them.”
“We had 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. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving. On Friday, the White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism. But on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this.”
Kimmel then played a clip of President Donald Trump discussing how he was “holding up” after the murder of Kirk, whom he had been close to. As the audience laughed, Kimmel mocked Trump’s reaction, saying it resembled how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.
Prior to the arrest of Kirk’s alleged assassin, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, officials revealed bullet casings from the rifle used to kill Kirk contained a series of phrases such as “Hey fascist! Catch!” and “If you read this you are gay LMAO.” A third bullet casing also had the engraving of “bella ciao,” which matches an Italian song name that became a left-wing anthem during World War II.
Amid online speculation from Democrats that Robinson might have been a radical right-winger, the 22-year-old was officially arrested Friday. At a press conference, Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Robinson “was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology” and had increasingly become political, viewing Kirk as “full of hate and spreading hate.”
Text messages released by officials on Tuesday as authorities had officially brought charges forward against Robinson, revealed an alleged conversation between him and his transgender roommate.
In one message to his roommate, Robinson allegedly told the roommate to look under his keyboard for a note that allegedly said, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.”
“I had enough of his hatred,” Robinson allegedly texted to the roommate. “Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
Kimmel has long criticized Trump and his administration, previously having to backtrack on comments about billionaire Elon Musk.
In March, during his monologue, the late-night host mocked Musk’s interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity, which addressed a rise in riots targeting Tesla vehicles following Department of Government Efficiency cuts.
Musk had suggested the incidents were linked to mental illness in the U.S., while Kimmel appeared to justify the unrest, saying people “get mad” when “you pull out a chainsaw to celebrate firing thousands of people.”
“My god, I mean, this poor guy. You do one, maybe two Nazi salutes, everybody gets all bent out of shape!” Kimmel added.
However, after facing online backlash, Kimmel later told his audience, “please don’t vandalize Tesla,” pausing with a sarcastic facial expression that some interpreted as subtly endorsing the idea.
ABC did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)
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