Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, has been indefinitely suspended by ABC. The reason: Kimmel has made several comments about Charlie Kirk and Kirk’s death on September 10th. I watched some clips of JKL – at first, Kimmel used Kirk’s death as a framing device to talk about what Donald Trump was doing and saying in the wake of his “friend’s” assassination. Then this week, Kimmel made a comment which “crossed a line” with MAGA World. What’s interesting is that the comment being cited wasn’t about Kirk, it was about the guy who allegedly killed Kirk, Tyler Robinson. Kimmel said: “We hit 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.” Which is a factual statement – JD Vance, Stephen Miller and Trump World are openly twisting all of this to blame “the left.” The authorities are now going so far as to release extremely questionable “text messages” from Robinson to set him up as left-wing assassin.
ABC/Disney decided to yank Kimmel indefinitely after complaints from their affiliates, including Sinclair Broadcasting, which is famously right-wing. Trump’s appointee as the head of the FCC Brendan Carr has also been gunning for Kimmel for months, and Carr has directly threatened to revoke ABC’s license if they don’t get rid of Kimmel. Well, Sinclair is now demanding that Kimmel personally donate to Kirk’s family and Turning Point USA:
Sinclair will replace the Jimmy Kimmel Live! time slot on Friday with a tribute special to Charlie Kirk. The company has also demanded that Kimmel apologize to Kirk’s family, and donate to them and Turning Point USA, which was co-founded by Kirk.
The announcement was made shortly after ABC said is was suspending the late-night show “indefinitely” after both Sinclair and Nexstar kicked it off its U.S. stations following Kimmel’s comments about Kirk’s assassination during a Monday monologue.
“Mr. Kimmel’s remarks were inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country,” said Sinclair’s Vice Chairman Jason Smith in a statement. “We believe broadcasters have a responsibility to educate and elevate respectful, constructive dialogue in our communities. We appreciate FCC Chairman Carr’s remarks today and this incident highlights the critical need for the FCC to take immediate regulatory action to address control held over local broadcasters by the big national networks.”
The company also stated that it will not lift the suspension on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability,” and called on Kimmel to apologize to Kirk’s family, as well as make “a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, publicly demanded licensed broadcasters to stop airing Kimmel’s show. “I think that it’s really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say, ‘Listen, we are going to preempt, we are not going to run Kimmel anymore, until you straighten this out because we, we licensed broadcaster, are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion,’” Carr said when speaking with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.
Again… this is happening not because Kimmel said anything line-crossing about Charlie Kirk. This is because Kimmel isn’t buying the authorities ham-fisted attempts to convince everyone that Kirk’s death was the product of a vast left-wing conspiracy. Kimmel questioned the “Reichstag fire” of it all. It’s lunacy. And surprise surprise, it looks like all of those right-wing “free speech” activists are super-quiet.
Per Deadline, Kimmel learned of this suspension (or whatever it is) via a phone call with Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden, and “both sides were very businesslike and polite.” Reportedly, Kimmel is not going to apologize (good) but there will be conversations between Kimmel and Disney corporate in the days to come.
Wait so Kimmel didn’t even make a joke about Charlie Kirk and the morons still got butthurt….@ABC taking him off the air "indefinitely" because Trump’s FCC guy threatens you for this nothing burger is insane….this is full blown fascism pic.twitter.com/GW4DXY2SnI
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) September 17, 2025
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- An Evening With Jimmy Kimmel at the Roosevelt Hotel on August 7, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA Featuring: Jimmy Kimmel Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 08 Aug 2019 **ONLY AVAILABLE FOR SPAIN & USA**,Image: 536841939, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: USA and SPAIN DIRECT SALES ONLY – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: WENN / Wenn / Avalon
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- Jimmy Kimmel hosts the live ABC telecast of the 95th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 12, 2023.,Image: 762329065, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: LCY / Avalon
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- Host Jimmy Kimmel on stage during the live ABC telecast of the 95th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 12, 2023.,Image: 762344491, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Blaine Ohigashi / Avalon
This is our democracy being strangled to death and all because racist white men got a hold of a puppet who will do anything they say. Also because Trump doesn’t want the Epstein files released.
Sinclair bought up and owns thousands of affiliate stations. One of my local news stations is Sinclair owned and I stopped watching them in 2018. I love Only Murders and Paradise but cannot support that company with my money. I canceled my Hulu subscription and deleted the app.
Though I live in a blue state, I’m thinking it may be time to get myself and my family out of this country.
Watching all this from Europe, I completely understand you. I can’t imagine what you guys are going through, watching all this go down.
As an ex journalist, we learned about this type of censorship in college. I never, in a million years, thought I would read about it in decades to come. And in America out of all countries.
I am terrified for you all.
I’ve said goodbye to freedom of speech and resigned myself to keeping my thoughts to myself.
Letting them win is not how you stop this.
Yes @kitten because it doesn’t stop at free speech. Fight any way you can and resist. At least by cancelling Disney ABC ESPN all the corporations involved. Consumer activism can be dialed up. The boycott we have been informally running from Canada has had an impact. You can all have an impact. Please fight, I can’t imagine how hard it is, but please fight.
Boycott and protest. If you’ve never bothered to attend a protest, now is that moment. October 18th is No Kings. GALVANIZE. He wants all of us to be too scared to do anything about his reign. He doesn’t want to see the millions of Americans who oppose him taking to the streets. Be sure to take safety precautions and remember there’s power in numbers.
If I could afford it, I would already be gone. My parents are aging. I cannot do anything until my parents are gone. I just have to weather it out and keep my head down. This comment will probably get deleted but, as far as I’m concerned, this is a white elite conversation. They are not going to hear it from us. Joy Reid has a great point to MAGA, you have everything and you’re deleting history. Why are you do mad? My family has a history of surviving fascism when it was called segregation. We will bob and weave where we can.
Yeah I’m not sure how I can leave. We’d have to find work, and I work in a very very specific area of law that’s very specific to the US, so it would be tricky to transfer over. My husband does very local law so its not like he can easily move to an international firm or anything.
And my parents are aging and then my kids are approaching high school and I’m just not sure how we could possibly move. Even for retirement I’m not sure because I would want to be close-ish to my children as they have kids etc.
But things are getting bad so…..maybe we do need to look at it more closely.
@thatgirl – would making a bunch of “free trial” accounts with a bunch of new emails allow you to watch the show but not help them with making money? (Genuinely asking, I don’t know how streaming services work exactly)
Completely agree.
DON’T APOLOGIZE, JIMMY. You’re done no matter what you say, there’s no need to debase yourself. Go down swinging.
Goddamn, this is terrifying. This is some Horst Wessel shit.
This is exactly what Hitler did. Stifle dissent, dictate what the media can say. It’s also Putin’s playbook. There was nothing wrong with what Jimmy said. I’ve emailed ABC and Disney to tell them I’m boycotting. I agree we are falling off the cliff quickly into authoritarianism, and unfortunately people are complacent with just complaining online instead of getting out to protest in person. I will be making my kids apply to colleges outside the US, and it breaks my heart.
Yes @hillaryisalwaysright consumer activism. Cancel it all and fund free speech organizations. #47 and his fascist stooges have many weaknesses. They are more vulnerable than they appear to be on the surface by their actions. Hubris is a huge vulnerability. Keep fighting,
I feel desperately sad for my friends in the US, it must be dreadful watching your country be destroyed by Trump and his brigade of authoritarian mates. I am not sure how you will recover from this.
I honestly don’t believe that there is a non-violent way to recover from this. I hate to say it, but when you look at history, peace just doesn’t break out in a country that is this far gone.
All of us (even not Americans!) need to work on our future. I’m genuinely scared for the future and mine isn’t as long as others. For those of us who still (nominally) have a choice, I hope we make that choice wisely. This idiocy is beyond. And for reasons everyone here knows. They were gagging for a leftie murderer for that Charlie guy, but let’s blame the left and anyone which a choice anyway. I know you’re scared. I think now we’re all fing terrified. Btw why was tampon Charles sucking so deep into Trump other than? Reasons we know. Hello Jeff
Boycott. Boycotts work. It did with South Africa. Hit them where it hurts, boycott ABC and Disney. And while we’re at it, boycott Amazon and twitter too because why are people still supporting those fascist billionaires?
Yes, to all of this! I can’t do much as a Canadian except try to support my communities here and donate to groups in the USA supporting the marginalized but I have been doing my best to boycott these companies giving into this monster.
I cancelled my Disney subscription this morning.
I canceled my subscription too
What would really make boycotts work is organization. I don’t know about South Africa, but I’d be willing to bet it was well organized, and I *know* that the Civil Rights movement was very well organized. Disparate parts sometimes across the regions, but organized. What we in America are missing with our boycotts is a goal, generally. The Target boycotts should have had getting rid of the fascist-snuggly CEO and any of his “intellectual” heirs as a goal and getting DEI reinstated. Now the CEO is finally stepping down but the replacement is more of the same and DEI doesn’t appear to be coming back so the boycott is… for what exactly? Probably feels good to do but if people are just going to Walmart instead, which has financed the Pedophile Party to a ridiculous extent, it’s not really accomplishing anything, is it. I realize some people migrated to Costco and that’s better, but I feel like an organized boycott would have had at least some percentage of boycotters going out of their way to do stuff like sending their Costco receipts to Target and letting them know just how much Target is losing and why, specifically, it’s going somewhere else.
Better something than nothing, but I can’t help but feel like we’re missing the real heart.
100%. I have been boycotting anything owned by Bezos since the inauguration. I’ve never used/owned anything owned by Musk or Zuckerberg. F Facebook forever. Facebook and Twitter/X are contributing in a big way to the downfall of our democracy by not filtering content and eliminating hate speech. There is a whole generation growing up thinking all this is normal.
The Target boycott by people of color is proof that boycotts work. We need something even bigger during the upcoming holiday season. Don’t shop at corporate stores; stick to local ones whose owners you trust.
This folks is authoritarianism. Asking questions, not even able to offer light criticism? We’re not getting there, we’re there. And of course they want him to make a donation to turning point, it’s always about the grift.
What’s interesting is canceling his show will probably reach more people that have checked out of politics, then any of the other abhorrent things that they’ve been doing all year. Because people are going to ask all of a sudden why a show that comes on five nights a week is off the air.
Jimmy will be okay financially. ABC is going to have to pay him his contract, because I can’t see how they could justify cause here. And all of the late night hosts have to run their monologues through Network lawyers to make sure that they don’t get sued, so it’ll be interesting to see how they’ll say their own lawyer was wrong. It really sucks for the lighting crew, hairstylist, PA’s, sound people that just lost their jobs. And don’t know when or if they will get them back, in a industry that’s all ready shutting down productions left and right. How people can still pretend that Trump is beneficial in any way I will never know.
Also I wonder if Ricky Gervais is still shaking his finger at comedian’s and actors who speak out about politics?
oh yeah, we are cooked
On reddit, someone posted a news article from the baltimore sun about a teacher that posted a charlie kirk meme, and the mod autobot thing made sure to point out that the baltimore sun is owned by a company that’s owned by a guy that runs or is on the board of sinclair, and so the article might not be reliable. I was like, that’s so cool. I wish we had more stuff like that in real life, too
Also, not probably super relevant, but I recently learned that sinclair is an investor in curio wellness, which is a weed… brand? farm? IDK. Just doesn’t seem on-brand.
Taking people’s money in as many ways as possible is entirely on brand for fascists/big business. Republicans have no real beliefs, anyway, at least not when it comes to themselves.
Yeah, I’m terrified. It hasn’t even been a full year yet and it’s feels dark dark dark.
I read somewhere that Nexstar, which owns a bunch of ABC affiliates, is up for a merger that needs FCC approval. Methinks that’s the real reason, much like Colbert and that pending merger/lawsuit. I swear it all comes down to a big cohort of mediocre fragile middle aged white guys at risk of not being in control of everything any more they chose to put an incompetent angry big orange con man in charge.
Nine months. NINE FUCKING MONTHS!!! That’s all it took.
The people behind Trump have been planning this for 4 years. The Heritage Foundation has been planning this for decades.
This. It’s been in the plans at least ever since W ran for governor
It took Putin decades to get to this point.
I’m still not sure Americans realize what’s happened here–not “what’s happening”, not “what’s about to happen”–but what has HAPPENED. We’re at the end, guys, not the beginning.
As it did with Colbert, my union the WGA made a statement. Solidarity to Kimmel. https://www.wga.org/news-events/news/press/2025/wga-statement-on-abc-decision-to-pull-jimmy-kimmel-live
The most sickening thing to me is Donald LOSES when he goes to court! I know it’s super expensive and a lot of trouble but he LOSES every time and yet everybody is rolling over dead just because it’s easier.
No, they’re rolling over because of two things:
1) they need a merger approved. All those who have capitulated needed something and know full well that the GOP is petty AF, so they capitulate.
2) all of the billionaire owners of the “mainstream” (i.e., pro-Republican) media are fascist or willing to support fascism.
This. If they wanted to fight it, they would. They could certainly afford the legal fees. If you’re wondering why they don’t, just follow the money.
Trump seems jealous of the attention Kirk’s murder has received. He can’t even verbalize condolences to his widow. His knee-jerk reaction is to change the subject and start talking about the $200 million + ballroom that is so much more cost effective than asking guests to walk to a tent.
He’s probably more jealous of the widow TBH. Her grifting skills are unmatched.
I read that text message exchange yesterday and it was…..weird. I obviously can’t say for certain that it’s fake or staged but I have 20-something children and they never talk like that in texts. My son especially tends to be monosyllabic when he’s preoccupied. They’re Gen Z/Millenial cuspers, not as young as this kid, so they would be less inclined to use memes and slang and abbreviations I would think.
The way the texts were written, it sounded like the last hours of John Wilkes Booth mashed up with some on-line gamer slang.
OMG! I said to a friend, “Since when do 22 year old men write like a Civil War soldier?”
They ARE Mormons..
But… free speech?
But…. we’re the snowflakes??
The hypocrisy is maddening.
I know this game is trite at this stage but imagine if Biden forced Fox News to remove Brian Kilmeade because he said homeless people should be murdered. Just fucking IMAGINE the outrage from the Right.
I bet Greg Gutfeld’s late show is safe. Murdoch must be happy. Speaking of Murdoch, he was at the state dinner last night, wasn’t he?
We’ve been hurtling toward this moment since about 1978. I’m glad, in a sense, that the GOP has finally taken the mask off and showed their true fascist identity.
Perhaps now is the time we begin to acknowledge painful truths about Republican voters: nothing seems to be too much for them, not long term. Whether that is because of their own reluctance to recognize what the party actually stands for or because the right wing media continues to polish whatever turd the GOP is selling, it’s a fact that Republican voters keep voting Republican just about no matter what. So we need to say: there are no good Republican voters. They are my family and some extended family friends I can’t personally shake, but if they vote for all this? No, *we* need to stop shining a turd and say what they are: fascists.
I looked forward to both Kimmel’s and Colbert’s shows. I remember especially Colbert’s interview with Harry. This censorship of their shows is disgraceful. Kimmel and Colbert also had great guest stars and interviews.
To echo what someone said higher up, boycott. I haven’t been to Target since the DEI thing and the stepping-down of the CEO was, frankly, too little too late. I don’t even think about Target now. I’m a huge Sussex supporter and was ready to watch the Disney 70 thing because they’re in it, but not now. I have both Disney and Hulu, oh, wait, no I don’t. Until Kimmel’s show is back, that’s how I’m moving.
This feels super scary like a final straw of some kind…
Everything feel terrifying right now…
I don’t have any of the channels owned by ABC or Disney or Hulu but if I did I’d cancel…
I’m not sure what I can do…if anything…my state is blue thank heavens and our governor is fighting on everything already…
😢
Bernie Sanders was warning this would happen in January, immediately after Trump took office. I still remember him telling Chris Hayes that his job is 100% on the line because he’s not afraid to criticize Trump. I absolutely believed him so this is no surprise to me.
I just don’t know how we get out of this with so many people continuing to support this menace. I never want to here anyone on the Right invoke the Constitution ever again. These fuckers wipe their damn asses with it.
Ordering Jimmie to apologize (for speaking a truth) and donate money to Charlie’s cause & family?? Wtf. Insane!
I wish drump’s Bell’s Palsy, or whatever it is, signified the beginning of the end. BP is temporary though & resolves with time. Feed him more McD burgers.
It’s extortion, plain and simple.
Boycott ABC. These companies haven’t learned from Target. If ABC’s viewership declines, it could have a negative domino effect in their finances.
Trump has been gunning for Kimmel for a while and this was the excuse he needed. I’m so sick of this whole charade of glorifying this guy and use it as an excuse to go after people. It’s trying to force and manipulate our emotions.
Boycott Disney. I do not own a tv and haven’t since 2008. I have Netflix, my husband has Hulu. We are cancelling Hulu. We have to make our voices heard. The only way to hurt them is to get to their bottom line. I no longer shop at Target or Amazon.
Boycott! Cancel everything. Refuse to give these fascists one more dime. I’m watching from Canada and I cannot believe how fast this slide into fascism is happening. Fight with your money. Go without streaming. Get rid of Amazon. Screw FB. Things can’t stay the same. People need to get their priorities straight or the country is going to burn.
Protest the fascists!
Stay strong neighbours!!
Jimmy Kimmel has a net worth of at least $50 million. He and his family will be fine. But not the crew, the writers or Guillermo. They are all out of jobs now. Facing an uncertain future for them.
He said nothing inflammatory or untrue. just so upsetting how bad our country is going down the tubes. I don’t know if I can take 3 more years of this. Or if Trump is still around and decides to name himself Emperor for life. Or Vance succeeds him to Presidency. It will be never ending.
Everything feels so bleak now.