On his show on Tuesday NZT, Kimmel, 57, said: \u201cWe had 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 with everything they can to score political points from it\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tyler Robinson, the suspect in Kirk\u2019s shooting, does not appear to be ideologically conservative or a supporter of US President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n
According to charging documents from prosecutors released earlier this week, Robinson sent a message to his flatmate that he \u201chad enough of [Kirk\u2019s] hatred\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kimmel\u2019s contract with ABC was set to expire next year and there was speculation about whether it would be renewed, particularly after the announcement in July that CBS owner Paramount would cancel its top-rated late-night show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.<\/p>\n
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr criticised Kimmel earlier today, suggesting the federal agency could pull broadcast licenses owned by parent company Disney. Licences are given to local stations, not networks, and revocations are extremely rare.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way,\u201d Carr told conservative podcast host Benny Johnson. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there\u2019s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carr said he could \u201ccertainly see a path forward for suspension\u201d for Kimmel at the network, something the FCC would have no involvement in. Carr has also previously criticised the ABC show The View.<\/p>\n
In a post on the social media platform X, Carr celebrated Nexstar\u2019s decision to \u201cdo the right thing\u201d and stop airing the show. <\/p>\n
\u201cLocal broadcasters have an obligation to serve the public interest,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FCC is set to review Nexstar\u2019s proposed US$6.2 billion ($10.4b) acquisition of another local television behemoth, Tegna. <\/p>\n
That deal, which is expected to close by the second half of 2026, would also require the FCC to relax the national ownership cap that limits how many stations one company can own in the US. <\/p>\n
Carr has suggested in the past that he is willing to raise or eliminate the long-standing cap.<\/p>\n
The decision by ABC is likely to be seen as a concession to the network\u2019s critics. <\/p>\n
In December, the company agreed to put US$15 million towards Trump\u2019s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit.<\/p>\n
After the announcement that Colbert\u2019s show would be cancelled, Trump speculated on his Truth Social platform that Kimmel was \u201cNEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes\u201d.<\/p>\n
In early September, Kimmel mocked Trump as \u201ca delicate, chubby little teacup\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid we hurt your feelings?\u201d he asked. \u201cYou want us to be cancelled because we make jokes about you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has also taken aim at Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, who host late-night shows for NBC. Both are under contract through into 2028.<\/p>\n
In a post on X, Democratic Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois wrote: \u201cA free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn\u2019t like what they say\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ari Cohn, lead counsel for tech policy at the free speech advocacy organisation Fire, said today that \u201cthe Government pressured ABC – and ABC caved\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother media outlet withered under government pressure, ensuring that the Administration will continue to extort and exact retribution on broadcasters and publishers who criticise it,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kimmel\u2019s show debuted in 2003. <\/p>\n
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times last year, Kimmel said his current contract with Disney could be his last. <\/p>\n
\u201cI still have a little more than two years left on my contract, and that seems pretty good,\u201d he said. \u201cThat seems like enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On his show on Tuesday NZT, Kimmel, 57, said: \u201cWe had some new lows over the weekend with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2655,30897,64,63,86463,447,23698,16386,22054,1300,101298,134,9674,580,74017,61029,61030,65075,98709,101299,4125,36440,38072,101297,101300,2349,21506,10965,34467,23697,1050],"class_list":["post-150918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-abc","tag-air","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-backlash","tag-celebrities","tag-charlie","tag-comments","tag-conservative","tag-death","tag-disneyowned","tag-entertainment","tag-following","tag-for","tag-influencer","tag-jimmy","tag-kimmel","tag-kirk","tag-kirks","tag-latenight","tag-live","tag-made","tag-off","tag-pulls","tag-rightwing","tag-show","tag-states","tag-take","tag-united","tag-wake","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}