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.
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.
Sinclair Broadcast Group said it would not air the show either. The company called on Kimmel to apologize to Kirk’s family and make a “meaningful personal donation” to the activist’s political organization, Turning Point USA. Sinclair says that its 38 ABC stations will air a tribute to Kirk on Friday in Kimmel’s time slot.
Local affiliates in the past occasionally grumbled about some shows from the network and even refused to air them. What’s new is that so many stations are working together to apply the pressure at the same time, said Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.
In some ways, Kimmel’s situation hearkens back to a famous event in television history. CBS abruptly canceled a popular variety show, “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” in 1969 when the network got heat for the hosts’ stance against the Vietnam War.
The refusal by 66 stations to air a program represents a significant financial hit. Roughly 230 stations across the country carry ABC programming. The network owns and operates eight of the largest stations, in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.
In an appearance on CNBC Thursday, Carr cheered the moves by Nexstar and Sinclair. While the FCC does not have formal power over the national networks, it does have the authority to suspend the licenses of individual stations in local markets.
“We’re reinvigorating the FCC’s enforcement of the public interest,” Carr said, “and I think that’s a good thing.”
