Clayton Davis, Chief Awards Editor at Variety, joined the KTLA 5 Morning News to share reactions from across the entertainment industry following ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live.
On Wednesday, ABC announced it was pulling Kimmel’s late-night talk show off the air “indefinitely” after backlash over comments the host made during Monday night’s monologue regarding the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The network’s decision came after the FCC threatened action against ABC and its affiliates. It also followed an announcement from Nexstar Media Group — the nation’s largest owner of local television stations and parent company of KTLA — that it would preempt the show “for the foreseeable future” across 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,” said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, in a statement on Wednesday. “We do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located.”
Nexstar announced this past August that it has entered into an agreement to acquire rival broadcast company Tegna for $6.2 billion. This merger would require FCC approval.
Demonstrators planned to protest the decision outside Kimmel’s Hollywood production stage on Thursday afternoon.
What Kimmel said
During his Monday night monologue, Kimmel criticized conservative media figures for their response to Kirk’s fatal shooting at a large public event at Utah Valley University last week.
“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. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”
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