Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show has been pulled following his “offensive” comments about Charlie Kirk’s death.
Disney’s ABC said it would take Jimmy Kimmel Live! off air “indefinitely” after Nexstar Media, one of the biggest owners of television stations in the US, said it would no longer broadcast the show on local stations.
It comes after Kimmel, whose show has been on air for over 22 years, said that a “Maga gang” was trying to score political points from Kirk’s murder.
In a statement on Wednesday, Nexstar said that its “owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network will preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future, beginning with tonight’s show”.
This means that it will replace the regularly scheduled programme with a different broadcast.
The company said it had made its decision because it “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk”.
It added that it will “replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets”.
Kirk’s assassination has seen an outpouring of schadenfreude from Left-wing figures, many of whom have been fired for their comments – Cheney Orr/Reuters
Donald Trump hailed Kimmel’s cancellation as “great news for America”.
Writing on Truth Social, the US president – who has frequently been the target of Mr Kimmel’s jokes – said: “The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.”
Kirk, 31, was shot dead during a talk at an event at Utah Valley University last Wednesday.
At the time of his killing, Kirk was hosting one of his “prove me wrong” events, where he debates students on hot-button issues, as part of his American Comeback tour.
On Tuesday, Tyler Robinson, 22, from Utah, was charged with aggravated murder for Kirk’s assassination.
The killing has sparked a wave of anxiety about increasing political violence in America, with Donald Trump blaming the “radical Left”.
Responding to the killing, Kimmel said: “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.”
He then mocked Mr Trump’s reaction to the tragedy, in which the US president responded to a question about how he was holding up by saying “very good”, before providing an update on the White House ballroom’s construction.
“He’s at the fourth stage of grief, construction,” Kimmel quipped.
“This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
His comments faced a backlash from conservatives who accused the comedian of being tone deaf.
The chair of the FCC described Kimmel’s comments as “truly sick” and urged Disney and ABC to “take action” against him – Patrick T Fallon/AFP
Earlier on Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr described Kimmel’s comments as “truly sick” and threatened ABC and Disney, urging them to “take action” against Kimmel.
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.
“These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
He added: “They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.”
Andrew Alford, President of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said Kimmel’s remarks were “offensive and insensitive” and that continuing to give him a platform was “not in the public interest”.
“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,” he 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.”
Kirk’s killing sparked an outpouring of schadenfreude from some on the Left, which has been met with reprisals from figures on the Right exposing them on social media.
In the US, a growing number of workers, including university professors, secret service agents and NFL staff, have been fired for praising the killing.
Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show was also cancelled, which his fans say was because of his frequent criticism of the US president – Frederic J Brown/AFP
The suspension of Kimmel’s long-running show comes amid a cull of late-night television hosts, after CBS announced that it would cancel Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show from next May.
In the wake of the cancellation, many of Colbert’s fans cried foul, claiming he was being penalised for his long history of ridiculing Mr Trump.
Colbert, who won an Emmy for outstanding talk series on Sunday, has mocked Paramount for agreeing to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Mr Trump.
The president alleged that CBS’s 60 Minutes had deceptively edited a pre-election interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
CBS denied the president’s claim.
Mr Trump also criticised Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, two other late-night hosts, and said they should be cancelled too, calling them “two total losers”.
An ABC spokesman told The Telegraph: “Jimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely.” .
Representatives for Kimmel were approached for comment.
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