ABC has suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! following comments its titular host made during his Tuesday night monologue about the death of conservative activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last week in Utah during a public debate appearance.
The network has pre-empted Kimmel’s show “indefinitely” after Nexstar, which owns 28 ABC affiliate stations across the United States, “said it will pre-empt the series for the immediate future,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
THR adds that there were rumblings that other TV groups were taking issue with Kimmel’s comments and that ABC feared “an affiliate revolt.”
In his monologue during Tuesday’s episode, 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.”
Andrew Alford, President of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, issued the following statement Wednesday to announce the company’s decision to pre-empt Jimmy Kimmel Live!:
“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. …
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.”
Kimmel’s comments also sparked the ire of Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr, a Trump Administration appointee who suggested on a podcast that the broadcast licenses of ABC and its affiliates could potentially be revoked over the matter.
THR points out that Nexstar’s move to pre-empt Kimmel’s show “comes as the broadcast station is seeking FCC approval for its $6.2 billion mega deal to acquire TEGNA.”
The Kimmel show’s suspension comes on the heels of Comedy Central pulling a planned repeat of a recent South Park episode that parodied Charlie Kirk but that aired before his murder.
