Disney’s ABC has announced it will indefinitely pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! from its schedule, a week after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot at Utah Valley University. The network confirmed the decision on Wednesday, September 17.
The move follows Nexstar Media, the largest local broadcast and digital media company in the U.S., which operates more than 200 stations across 116 markets, preempting airings of Kimmel’s program. In a statement, Nexstar said its “owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network will preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future, beginning with tonight’s show.” The company added that it “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”
Andrew Alford, President of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, elaborated: “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.” He continued, “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.”
The controversy began following Kimmel’s Monday, September 15 monologue, in which he addressed supporters of former President Donald Trump. Referring to the MAGA movement, Kimmel said, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
Kimmel, who has hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live! since 2003, has long been a frequent target of Trump’s criticism, whether for monologue jokes or public remarks during high-profile events such as the Oscars. Following the cancellation of CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in July 2025, Trump predicted on his Truth Social account that Kimmel would be “next to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes.” He added of Kimmel and other hosts, “These are people with absolutely NO TALENT, who were paid Millions of Dollars for, in all cases, destroying what used to be GREAT Television. It’s really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it!”
Kimmel himself had previously hinted at leaving the show, telling the Los Angeles Times in February 2024 that the three-year contract he signed in 2022 would likely be his last. “I still have a little more than two years left on my contract, and that seems pretty good,” he said at the time, adding wryly, “That seems like enough.”
The host has also publicly expressed his frustration with Trump. In July 2025, while on summer vacation, Kimmel shared a photo of his family at an anti-Trump protest. He and his wife, Live! co-head writer Molly McNearney, along with their children Jane and Billy, held signs with messages including “Don’t bend the knee,” “Make America Good Again,” and “I wish we had a better president!” Kimmel captioned the post: “May every day be another wonderful secret,” referencing a line from a letter allegedly sent by Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Kimmel also voiced support for his friend and late-night colleague Colbert following The Late Show’s cancellation, reposting a clip of Colbert’s announcement on Instagram Stories and writing, “Love you Stephen.” He then took aim at the network behind the decision, adding, “F— you and all your Sheldons, CBS,” referencing the network’s Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon series.
The ABC host has a history of grappling with the limits of political commentary on his show. In 2022, he acknowledged that he had considered stepping away from Jimmy Kimmel Live! if restrictions were placed on jokes about Trump. “I said, ‘If that’s what you want to do, I don’t begrudge you for it, but I’m not going to do that. If you want someone else to host the show, that’s fine with me. I’m just not going to do it like that,’” he told Stitcher’s Naked Lunch podcast, reflecting on the early days of the Trump era in late-night television.
With ABC’s decision to remove the program indefinitely, the future of Kimmel’s long-running show remains uncertain, raising questions about the boundaries of political commentary, corporate oversight, and the evolving landscape of late-night television.
