ABC has indefinitely suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the host’s controversial remarks about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Reports suggest that the decision followed pressure from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), intensifying debates over free expression and political influence in broadcasting.
(Also read: Watch: Jimmy Kimmel celebrates Tucker Carlson getting fired in resurfaced video, netizens say ‘it's karma’)
Fallon reacts to the suspension
The announcement quickly drew reactions across the television industry, with fellow late-night host Jimmy Fallon publicly addressing the issue. The official Instagram account of Fallon’s show shared a video of his response, captioned: “Jimmy Fallon reacts to ABC’s decision to suspend @jimmykimmel after pressure from the FCC, leaving everyone thinking WTF? #FallonTonight (sic).”
In the clip, Fallon said: “This morning I woke up to 100 text messages from my dad saying I’m sorry they cancelled your show. I go, that’s not me, that’s Jimmy Kimmel. Uh, but to be honest with you all, I, I don’t know what’s going on. And no one does, but I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he’s a decent, funny, and loving guy, and I hope he comes back. Yeah, a lot of people are worried that we won’t keep saying what we want to say or that we’ll be censored, but I’m going to cover the president’s trip to the UK just like I normally would.”
Take a look here at the clip:
{{/usCountry}}Take a look here at the clip:
{{/usCountry}}What Kimmel said about Charlie Kirk
The controversy stemmed from Kimmel’s Tuesday night monologue, in which he said: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise 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 also mocked President Donald Trump’s public mourning of Kirk, comparing it to a child losing a pet. “This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish,” he remarked.
Declining late-night viewership
Viewership across late-night television has been slipping amid the rise of streaming and social platforms. According to Nielsen, Jimmy Kimmel Live averaged 1.57 million viewers per episode during the last broadcast season that ended in May, while The Late Show with Stephen Colbert led with 1.9 million.