The stunning decision on Wednesday to suspend one of the United States’ most popular and influential late-night shows has come as Donald Trump and his allies have threatened to crack down on criticism of Charlie Kirk, the rightwing activist killed last week.
Jimmy Kimmel’s show was taken off the air “indefinitely” after the host was criticised for comments about the motives behind the killing Kirk and the president’s reaction to the event.
The move was immediately welcomed by Trump, who hailed it as “Great News for America.”
The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.”
Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns or operates dozens of local ABC stations across the US, has said it will replace Kimmel’s programme on Friday with a tribute to Charlie Kirk.
In a statement posted online, Sinclair praised the Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, for threatening the licenses of stations that defended Kimmel’s right to free speech, and called the comic’s remarks “inappropriate and deeply insensitive”.
The company owns ABC affiliates in dozens of cities, including: Washington DC; St Louis, Missouri; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
It pledged to keep Kimmel’s show off its stations “until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability.”
Key events
What is Nexstar, the TV station operator that first pulled Jimmy Kimmel from air?
Nexstar Communications Group is one of the largest operators of TV stations in the US and, crucially, operates 23 ABC affiliates which air Jimmy Kimmel’s programme.
It said it was pulling his programme after Kimmel’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s death which it called “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse.”
Last month Nexstar announced a multi-billion dollar deal to buy smaller rival Tegna, creating a local-TV powerhouse that could compete better with Big Tech and national media for advertising dollars.
The deal was subject to regulatory approval and experts said it would likely prove to be a test case in the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) deregulatory approach under Trump appointed chair Brendan Carr.
US media reported that Nexstar and Tegna were betting on Donald Trump’s administration enforcing looser antitrust rules. In June the FCC said it was seeking to refresh a rule that caps station ownership at a combined reach of 39% of US households.
“The initiatives being pursued by the Trump administration offer local broadcasters the opportunity to expand reach, level the playing field, and compete more effectively with the Big Tech and legacy Big Media companies,” Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said last month.
Sian Cain
Two of Hollywood’s biggest unions, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild, have voiced their support for Jimmy Kimmel after his show was suspended by ABC.
“The right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other – to disturb, even – is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people. It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice,” WGA West wrote late on Wednesday.
As a Guild, we stand united in opposition to anyone who uses their power and influence to silence the voices of writers, or anyone who speaks in dissent. If free speech applied only to ideas we like, we needn’t have bothered to write it into the Constitution. What we have signed on to – painful as it may be at times – is the freeing agreement to disagree.”
“Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth.”
Meanwhile Sag-Aftra, which represents around 170,000 actors, journalists and many more professions across the media and entertainment industries, said it “condemns” Kimmel’s suspension.
“Democracy thrives when diverse points of view are expressed,” their statement read. “The decision to suspend airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone’s freedoms. Sag-Aftra stands with all media artists and defends their right to express their diverse points of view, and everyone’s right to hear them.”
Free speech groups have reacted with alarm to the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s programme, with one calling it a “new McCarthyism.”
Truth Wins Out (TWO), an anti-extremism nonprofit said it was part of a “dangerous right‑wing ‘Cancel Crusade’ that has weaponized outrage to silence dissent and intimidate media outlets.”
If this dire situation continues, the only people left on the air will be Baghdad Bob and that anchorwoman in North Korea. This is a new McCarthyism that has expanded the boundaries of ‘woke’ to once unimaginable dimensions. It is chilling the free press and punishing truth‑tellers.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has said that the ABC network “caved” to pressure from the US government.
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 government pressure, ensuring that the administration will continue to extort and exact retribution on broadcasters and publishers who criticize it.”
In a statement, the advocacy group went on to say that the US “cannot be a country where late night talk show hosts serve at the pleasure of the president. But until institutions grow a backbone and learn to resist government pressure, that is the country we are.”
What did Jimmy Kimmel say about Charlie Kirk’s shooting?
When announcing that it would pull Jimmy Kimmel’s programme, Nexstar Communications Group called comments the comedian had made about Charlie Kirk’s death “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse.”
Supporters of Donald Trump have praised the decision, with the White House deputy chief of staff calling it an example of “consequence culture.”
But what did Kimmel actually say that raised the ire of the president’s Maga movement?
During his Monday evening monologue, Kimmel suggested Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, might have been a pro-Trump Republican.
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.”
On Tuesday he said “many in Maga-land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk”.
The president and his henchmen are doing their best to fan the flames, so they can I guess attack people on the dangerous left.”
The Hollywood Reporter has said that Kimmel was preparing to address the backlash on Wednesday night’s show and show how his comments had been taken out of context. Their report says he was not intending on apologising for them.
Sian Cain
A number of figures in US comedy have reacted with shock to the decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel from the air.
Comedian Mike Birbiglia wrote that he had long defended comedians with views he didn’t agree with, adding: “If you’re a comedian and you don’t call out the insanity of pulling Kimmel off the air – don’t bother spouting off about free speech anymore.”
Comedian Michael Kosta, who occasionally hosts the Daily Show, wrote: “This is a serious moment in American history. TV networks MUST push back. This is complete BS.”
Comedian and actress Wanda Sykes said in an Instagram video that Trump “didn’t end the Ukraine War or solve Gaza within his first week, but he did end freedom of speech within his first year. Hey, for those of you who pray, now’s the time to do it. Love you, Jimmy.”
And sharing recent footage of Fox commentator Brian Kilmeade calling for mentally ill and homeless people to be killed, comedian Paul Scheer wrote: “So let me get this straight. Kimmel is off the air for his comments about the politicization of an assassination but this is totally fine.” Kilmeade later apologised for his “extremely callous” remarks.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has joined a number of her Democratic colleagues in condemning the decisions to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s programme, saying “giant media companies are enabling his authoritarianism.”
First Colbert, now Kimmel. Last-minute settlements, secret side deals, multi-billion dollar mergers pending Donald Trump’s approval. Trump silencing free speech stifles our democracy. It sure looks like giant media companies are enabling his authoritarianism.
The stunning decision on Wednesday to suspend one of the United States’ most popular and influential late-night shows has come as Donald Trump and his allies have threatened to crack down on criticism of Charlie Kirk, the rightwing activist killed last week.
Jimmy Kimmel’s show was taken off the air “indefinitely” after the host was criticised for comments about the motives behind the killing Kirk and the president’s reaction to the event.
The move was immediately welcomed by Trump, who hailed it as “Great News for America.”
The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.”
Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns or operates dozens of local ABC stations across the US, has said it will replace Kimmel’s programme on Friday with a tribute to Charlie Kirk.
In a statement posted online, Sinclair praised the Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, for threatening the licenses of stations that defended Kimmel’s right to free speech, and called the comic’s remarks “inappropriate and deeply insensitive”.
The company owns ABC affiliates in dozens of cities, including: Washington DC; St Louis, Missouri; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
It pledged to keep Kimmel’s show off its stations “until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability.”
Soon after the announcement from ABC affiliate group Nexstar that it would be taking Jimmy Kimmel’s programme off the air, FCC chair Brendan Carr thanked the organisation for “doing the right thing”.
Local broadcasters have an obligation to serve the public interest. While this may be an unprecedented decision, it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community values.”
I want to thank Nexstar for doing the right thing.
Local broadcasters have an obligation to serve the public interest. While this may be an unprecedented decision, it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community… https://t.co/Px5boYbqNR
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) September 17, 2025
Earlier in the day Carr had urged local broadcasters to stop airing the show, saying they were “running the possibility of fines or licensed revocation from the FCC”.
More on Donald Trump’s announcement that he would designate Antifa a terrorist organisation.
It’s not clear what legal weight Trump’s proclamation has; Antifa is a loosely organised ideological movement without a clear leadership structure or hierarchy, according to experts.
The president and other senior officials have repeatedly blamed left-wing groups for creating an atmosphere of hostility towards conservatives before rightwing activist Charlie Kirk’s shooting last week. Critics say that Trump is using Kirk’s death as a pretext to crack down on political opponents.
A day after Utah prosecutors unveiled formal charges against the suspected shooter of Kirk, no evidence has emerged connecting 22-year-old Tyler Robinson with any outside group. Questions also remain about his precise motives.
Trump initially floated the idea of such a designation for Antifa in 2020 amid violent nationwide protests following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
At the time, legal experts said such a step lacked a basis in law, would be hard to execute, and raised free-speech concerns, given that subscription to an ideology is not generally considered criminal.
Trump says he is designating antifa, which is not an organization, ‘a major terrorist organization’
Writing on his social network well after 1am local time in England, Donald Trump promised to designate antifascist activists, who form discrete groups around the US to oppose right-wing extremists, “a terrorist organization”.
The false idea that Antifa is an organization which can be proscribed, let alone one that has been responsible for terrorism of any kind, is widely accepted on the far-right, despite a lack of evidence.
“I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump wrote, nevertheless. “I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices.”
During Trump’s first term, in 2020, his White House posted and then deleted a compilation of viral video clips posted on social media by people who believed, wrongly, that the piles of bricks they came across on American streets had been planted there by antifascist activists to inspire violence at protests.
“Antifa and professional anarchists are invading our communities, staging bricks and weapons to instigate violence,” a caption for the video posted on the official White House Twitter feed claimed. “These are acts of domestic terror.”
That video, and the tweet promoting it, was deleted after journalists discovered that most of the clips included in the video posted online by the White House showed ordinary piles of bricks used in construction projects which were underway before the wave of protests began in response to the killing of George Floyd that year.
Sinclair, owner of ABC affiliates, to broadcast tribute to Charlie Kirk in Jimmy Kimmel’s time slot
Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns or operates dozens of local ABC stations across the US, announced on Wednesday that it plans to fill Jimmy Kimmel’s time-slot on Friday with a tribute to Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist and content creator whose assassination last week the comedian was pulled from the air for commenting on.
In a statement posted online, Sinclair praised the Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, for threatening the licenses of stations that defended Kimmel’s right to free speech, and called the comic’s remarks “inappropriate and deeply insensitive”.
“Sinclair’s ABC stations will air a special in remembrance of Charlie Kirk this Friday, during the Jimmy Kimmel Live! timeslot. The special will also air across all Sinclair stations this weekend. In addition, Sinclair is offering the special to all ABC affiliates across the country,” the company said.
The company owns ABC affiliates in dozens of cities, including: Washington DC; St Louis, Missouri; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
It pledged to keep Kimmel’s show off its stations “until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability.”
Sinclair also called for Kimmel “to issue a direct apology to the Kirk family” and “to make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA,” the far-right youth group Kirk founded.
During Donald Trump’s first term in office, Sinclair compelled news anchors on nearly 200 stations it owns, affiliated with ABC and other broadcasters, to read a prepared script in which they proclaimed:
“The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media.”
“Some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias.”
“This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”
Democrats to introduce a No Political Enemies (Nope) act, to protect government critics
In the wake of Jimmy Kimmel’s sudden disappearance from the airwaves, Democrats in the House and Senate plan to introduce legislation “to protect individuals and organizations, including non-profits, faith groups, media outlets, and educational institutions, from politically motivated targeting and prosecution by the federal government”.
Senators Chris Murphy, Chuck Schumer, Chris Van Hollen and Tina Smith will be joined by representatives Jason Crow, Greg Casar and Chrissy Houlahan at a press conference on Thursday to discuss their proposed No Political Enemies (Nope) act.
According to the lawmakers, they will also talk about threats from Donald Trump, and his vice-president, JD Vance, his attorney general, Pam Bondi, and his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, “to use the tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk as justification to weaponize the federal government to go after left-leaning individuals and organizations that don’t align with Trump’s political agenda”.
Jenna Amatulli
More reactions to the “indefinite” suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! have continued to pour in on social media, with politicians from both sides of the aisle, celebrities and more weighing in.
Nancy Mace, a Republican South Carolina representative who is running to be governor of South Carolina, celebrated in an impassioned post on X, claiming “we’re on a truth streak. President Trump is always right, YOU’RE FIRED”, while Chuck Schumer, a Democratic New York senator, demanded “this must go to court.”
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, took aim at the Republican party, calling the move “coordinated” and “dangerous.”
“The @GOP does not believe in free speech. They are censoring you in real time,” he wrote on X.
Actor Ben Stiller simply wrote in a quote-tweet on X: “This isn’t right.”
ACLU accuses Trump administration of ‘censoring Jimmy Kimmel’
In a statement on what it calls the “censoring” of Jimmy Kimmel, the American Civil Liberties Union noted that, as we reported, ABC and Nexstar, which owns local ABC affiliate stations, acted only after the Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, told a far-right podcaster that the FCC has the power to strip the broadcasting licenses of the affiliates.
Nexstar, the ACLU noted, “reportedly needs FCC approval to complete a $6.2 billion acquisition of the Tegna broadcasting company”.
Christopher Anders, director of the Democracy and Technology division of the ACLU, said:
Jimmy Kimmel is the latest target of the Trump administration’s unconstitutional plan to silence its critics and control what the American people watch and read. Cowering to threats, ABC and the biggest owner of its affiliate stations gave the Trump FCC chairman exactly what he wanted by suspending Kimmel indefinitely and dropping the show.
“This is beyond McCarthyism. Trump officials are repeatedly abusing their power to stop ideas they don’t like, deciding who can speak, write, and even joke. The Trump administration’s actions, paired with ABC’s capitulation, represent a grave threat to our first amendment freedoms.”
FCC chair sends celebratory gif to reporter seeking comment on ABC pulling Jimmy Kimmel’s show
This is where we are now.
Brendan Carr, the openly partisan chair of the Federal Communications Commission, responded to a request for comment from the CNN media analyst Brian Stelter on ABC taking Jimmy Kimmel off the air by sending a celebratory gif from the US version of The Office.
Trump celebrates demise of Kimmel’s show in late-night post from UK
Donald Trump is still in England, where it is after 1am, but he is celebrating ABC’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show from airwaves as a personal triumph and calling for NBC to complete the purge of his enemies by firing Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers next.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” Trump wrote on his social network, although the suspension of Kimmel’s show is not yet officially final.
“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT,” the president of network programming the United States wrote.
Reaction to ABC pulling Jimmy Kimmel’s show is filling Bluesky, one of the few social media platforms not owned by a rightwing billionaire
“Silly Jimmy Kimmel. He should have just called for all homeless people to be killed and he’d still have a job,” the broadcaster Mehdi Hasan observed, referring to the Fox host Brian Kilmeade suggesting during a broadcast last week that unhoused Americans could be killed via lethal injection.
“Chuck Schumer just told CNN, in the wake of Kimmel’s suspension, that ‘we are not that country’,” Bill Grueskin of Columbia Journalism School wrote. “Alas we are, now. Maybe not forever. But now.”
“ABC doesn’t want to be in the linear television business anymore because linear television is on its way out. Any pretext to dump salaries and wind down programming, they will take,” David Dayen, the editor of the American Prospect observed.
Senator Chris Murphy calls silencing of Jimmy Kimmel another step in ‘the systematic destruction of free speech in this country’
Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said in a video statement posted on social media that ABC’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel from the air over his mockery of the right’s response to the killing of Charlie Kirk is part of “the systematic destruction of free speech in this country”.
“It is Donald Trump using the power of the White House, in this case the power of his regulatory agencies, to try to shut down any speech that opposes him,” Murphy added. “Understand the gravity of this moment. This is a moment for the country to mobilize. This is a moment for all of us to be out in the streets protesting.”
It’s happening. The takedown of Jimmy Kimmel is likely the start of a campaign to use the murder of Charlie Kirk as a pretext to use the power of the White House to wipe out Trump’s critics and his political opponents.
But we aren’t powerless. We can mobilize and organize. Now. pic.twitter.com/OO4WyQjXPU
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) September 18, 2025
