Wow. It turns out that even ABC’s stations have had enough of Jimmy Kimmel’s poisonous schtick.
Disney announced this evening that Kimmel’s show will be “pre-empted indefinitely” after spewing conspiracy theory lies about the assassin who murdered Charlie Kirk. They had to act after hearing from their affiliates threatened to cancel him themselves:
“‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ will be preempted indefinitely,” an ABC spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The move comes after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr criticized Kimmel. Several owners of ABC TV stations, including large broadcaster Nexstar Media Group, told the network they were dropping the show.
In his Monday night broadcast, Kimmel—a critic of President Trump—said, “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,” he said.
Kimmel also said Vice President JD Vance and others in “MAGA-land” were trying to capitalize on Kirk’s death.
One has to marvel at the irony. Kimmel will disappear from the airwaves long before Stephen Colbert, whose contract will end with CBS in late May. Lefties claimed that Paramount was silencing Colbert and his activism against Trump, but the show was losing CBS around $40 million a year.
This … this is the real deal. Expect a big freakout over it, especially since it follows remarks by Brendan Carr about the possibility of licensing issues for stations airing this … what shalll we call it? … misinformation, perhaps?
BREAKING: The FCC Chairman is threatening immediate action against Jimmy Kimmel, ABC, and Disney for deliberately misleading the public by claiming Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a MAGA Conservative.
Chairman Brendan Carr calls Kimmel’s malicious lies are “truly sick” and says they… pic.twitter.com/mGhtGMPReI
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 17, 2025
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
“They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.”
“There are calls for Kimmel to be fired. I think you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this.”
Apparently, the affiliates listened. Or maybe they were inclined to boot Kimmel anyway. We may never know for sure, but Carr clearly wanted to play hardball, and Disney and its affiliates didn’t.
Now, I don’t want the FCC to police political speech. However, Disney does require an FCC licence to keep ABC on the air, and that license requires its recipients to act in the public interest with its broadcasts. (This does not apply to cable-only channels.) I’d prefer that Disney take the trash out on its own to demonstrate its commitment to the public interest. If they don’t, then I’d hope that consumers will drop Disney to the curb with the rest of the trash instead.
Is that what happened here? Maybe.
Is this cancellation well-deserved? You bet. And after living through years of activist pressure on advertisers targeting independent voice in politics, and the Biden administration strong-arming Big Tech platforms to silence debate and dissent, forcing the Left to play by their rules has a certain satisfaction, assuming that’s what happened.
Brendan Carr sends his regards, of course:
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr thanks Nexstar Media for their decision on Jimmy Kimmel.
(Important to note, ABC has pulled the show indefinitely nationwide.) https://t.co/bEgzYa4aZL pic.twitter.com/0vlfJ5ELnA
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 17, 2025
Brian Stelter is less happy:
Ari Cohn, counsel at @TheFIREorg, reacts:
“The government pressured ABC — and ABC caved. The timing of ABC’s decision, on the heels of the FCC chairman’s pledge to the network to “do this the easy way or the hard way,” tells the whole story. Another media outlet withered under…
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 17, 2025
I respect Ari’s take on this, much more than I do Stelter’s. But let’s face it — Kimmel was already alienating audiences with his vituperative activism, and his show was always likely to be the next late-night domino to fall. Kimmel’s allegations this week were so dishonest and defamatory that Disney had to be worried about legal action in trade for a failing show. The affiliates almost certainly were.
Still, Kimmel is about to eclipse Colbert for mainstream-media martyrdom. Hope Colbert enjoys that Emmy now that he’s done being the Cause of the Week.
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