ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel celebrated on air in a very off-color, glee-filled monologue in 2023 after Fox News fired Tucker Carlson, and now the late-night host has met the same fate.
Following Carlson’s removal, Kimmel said in April 2023, “Fox News has severed bowties with Tucker Carlson. After all these years, they are parting ways, which means he was fired. That’s really what parting ways means.”
“What a shock. What an absolutely delightful shock this is,” he continued.
“One of the most despicable mother-Tuckers ever to appear on American television,” Kimmel said.
He also made some grotesque references to how Tucker could now spend his time, which surprisingly did not get Kimmel kicked off the air then.
2023. Jimmy Kimmel celebrates Tucker Carlson getting fired from Fox. pic.twitter.com/KkvVRc4At6
— MAZE (@mazemoore) September 18, 2025
But thankfully, on Wednesday, ABC announced Kimmel’s indefinite suspension after the “comedian” falsely claimed earlier this week that Charlie Kirk’s assassin was “MAGA.”
“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,” Kimmel said.
Will ABC be better without Jimmy Kimmel?
It was already very clear by Monday evening that Tyler Robinson was not MAGA, but lost in left-wing la-la land.
On Friday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox told reporters that Robinson inscribed one of his bullet casings “hey fascist, catch” along with an Antifa symbol.
Gov. Spencer Cox says that the suspect who killed Charlie Kirk had bullet casing with “hey, fascist! catch” written on them with an Antifa symbol. pic.twitter.com/CRj2tPYBJc
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 12, 2025
Following Kimmel’s false monologue, two of ABC’s largest broadcast affiliates announced Wednesday that they would be preempting his show with other programming, which certainly made Disney’s decision to suspend him easier. It’s harder to sell advertising to an even smaller audience.
Forbes reported “Jimmy Kimmel Live” averaged 1.77 million viewers during the second quarter of this year. Contrast that with the also canceled “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” which had an audience of 2.42 million, or Carlson’s show, which used to average over 3.1 million.
Jason Smith, the vice chairman of Sinclair, ABC’s largest affiliate group, said that “Mr. Kimmel’s remarks were inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country,” according to the New York Post.
Nexstar, which owns dozens of ABC affiliate stations, also announced Wednesday that it was preempting “Jimmy Kimmel Live” for “the foreseeable future.”
“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,” Nexstar President Andrew Alford said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
Fox News reported Wednesday that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr had stated on “The Benny Show” that ABC should discipline Kimmel in some way.
“Carr signaled that an apology from Kimmel would be a ‘very reasonable, minimal step’ but also floated a ‘suspension’ by the network as a potential remedy. He also called on licensed broadcasters, particularly those not owned by Disney itself, to ‘push back’ against the House of Mouse and threaten to preempt its content if action isn’t taken,” according to the news outlet.
And that’s what happened.
Carr addressed the firing during a CNBC appearance on Thursday, saying, “Broadcast TV is different. We’re on a cable show right now. You don’t have an FCC license. You don’t have an obligation to serve the public interest. Podcasts don’t either.”
“But if you have a broadcast TV license, that means you have something that very few people have, and you’re excluding people from having access to that valuable public resource; it comes with an obligation to serve the public interest,” he added.
🚨 BREAKING: FCC Chair Brendan Carr just dropped a TRUTH NUKE on the liberals crying “free speech” after Jimmy Kimmel’s cable show was suspended.
“We’re on a cable show right now. If you don’t have an FCC license, you don’t have an obligation to serve the public interest.… pic.twitter.com/7cZAB9LmXM
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 18, 2025
Lying to the public in the aftermath of a horrific assassination regarding the motivation of the killer is not in the public interest. Kimmel was trying to give leftists, who constantly refer to Trump and his supporters as fascists, a pass.
His “joke” went too far, and thankfully, ABC pulled him from the air. As others have said, it’s not an issue of free speech; it’s an issue of accountability and frankly, profitability.
Kimmel is free to do his version of stand-up comedy anywhere he wishes or launch a podcast as Tucker did, but his time to be removed from publicly licensed airwaves had long passed.
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