Jimmy Kimmel’s television future hung in the balance Thursday after ABC suspended his late-night show following the host’s comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, leaving the network’s parent company to decide whether supporting him is worth the risk to its business.
(Image: Jimmy Kimmel attends “The Heart of Rock and Roll” special celebration on April 19, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
Two other companies that operate dozens of ABC stations came out against Kimmel, and they are being cheered on by a Trump administration regulator who can make life difficult for ABC’s owner, the Walt Disney Co.
But advocates for free speech say it’s time for the company to take a stand.
Kimmel made several remarks on his show Monday and Tuesday about the reaction to the conservative activist’s killing last week, suggesting many Trump supporters are trying to capitalize on Kirk’s death. “The MAGA gang (is) 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.
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, said Kimmel appeared to be making an intentional effort to mislead the public that the man accused in the fatal shooting was a right-wing Trump supporter. Authorities say 22-year-old Tyler Robinson grew up in a conservative household in southern Utah but was enmeshed in “leftist ideology.”
Kimmel has not commented on the suspension. His supporters say Carr misread what the comic said and that nowhere did he specifically suggest that Robinson was conservative.
President Donald Trump said Kimmel had bad ratings and should have been fired long ago. “So, you know, you could call that a free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent,” Trump said Thursday at a news conference in Britain. Later while returning to the U.S. aboard Air Force One, he said federal regulators should consider revoking broadcast licenses for networks that “give me only bad publicity.”
More than 60 affiliates refuse to air show
ABC, which has aired “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” since 2003, announced the suspension Wednesday shortly after Nexstar Communications Group said its stations would not show Kimmel because his Kirk remarks were “offensive and insensitive.” Nexstar operates 28 ABC affiliates.
-AP