Jimmy Kimmel has made a career out of poking fun at people in power. But this week, the joke seems to have boomeranged back at him — and hard. After 22 years in late-night, the ABC host was abruptly sidelined just hours before he was set to double down on remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The decision came in a phone call from Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Dana Walden on Wednesday. According to reports, the chat was long, serious, and anything but funny. Sources say executives were alarmed by Kimmel’s plan to return to air with a monologue that would have “enraged MAGA fans further.” And rather than risk it, Disney pulled the plug — at least for now.
The move followed backlash to comments Kimmel made earlier in the week about Kirk’s killing at Utah Valley University. On Monday’s show, he claimed Trump supporters were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.” That “kid” has been identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who relatives say grew up in a Republican household but was living with his transgender partner and had recently leaned into radical politics.
It was a messy story. And Kimmel’s take didn’t smooth anything over.
NEWS Disney’s CEO Bob Iger and co-chair Dana Walden made the decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s show after he planned to double down and go on camera to defend his lie that MAGA voters killed Charlie Kirk rather than “kowtow” to the outrage, Hollywood Reporter reports. They… pic.twitter.com/y96UQa8O8n
— Elizabeth MacDonald (@LizMacDonaldFOX) September 19, 2025
Behind the scenes, executives reportedly warned that if Kimmel went live with his new material, “there would have been no way back.” Translation: Disney feared that doubling down would push tensions with conservative viewers from hot to boiling.
Staffers at Jimmy Kimmel Live! were spotted packing up gear at the Los Angeles studio on Wednesday, hours after the suspension became public. According to Bloomberg, Kimmel spent Thursday meeting with lawyers and executives in Century City, captured on camera looking worn out behind the wheel of his Audi. At one point, he even put his head in his hands before flashing a smile for photographers.
BREAKING: Jimmy Kimmel was planning on DOUBLING DOWN and ATTACKING MAGA (again) before he got SUSPENDED
ABC Executives told Kimmel to go on-air and APOLOGIZE… but instead, he had wrote a “VERY HOT” monologue, “taking aim at MAGA”
Disney said “We can’t have him go on… pic.twitter.com/FwEvxHuqF3
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) September 19, 2025
BREAKING: Jimmy Kimmel was planning on DOUBLING DOWN and ATTACKING MAGA (again) before he got SUSPENDED 
Disney insists the suspension is temporary, but sources admit there’s a bigger question hanging in the air: will Kimmel even want to come back? Friends say he’s angry and feels betrayed, convinced Disney caved to political pressure. “The idea that one comment could sideline him after everything he’s given ABC — he’s gutted, but he’s not sorry,” one insider told The Daily Mail.
Meanwhile, Hollywood unions lined up in his defense. SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild both blasted the suspension as an attack on free speech, warning that “suppression and retaliation for speaking out on significant issues of public concern run counter to the fundamental rights we all rely on.”
That didn’t stop Donald Trump from chiming in with his own brand of late-night comedy. Hours after ABC confirmed the suspension, he declared online: “The ratings-challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.”
For now, the show is off the air, the stage is dark, and the future of Kimmel’s late-night reign is in limbo. Will Disney bring him back once tempers cool? Or has one monologue — and one controversy too many — ended an era?
The only certainty is that for a man whose job is to land the last laugh, Jimmy Kimmel suddenly isn’t laughing.
