Disney\u2019s ABC is taking Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s late night talk show off the air indefinitely amid a controversy over his recent comments about Charlie Kirk\u2019s suspected killer.<\/p>\n
\u201cJimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely,\u201d an ABC spokesperson said, declining to share any further details.<\/p>\n
A representative for Kimmel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
The abrupt announcement came Wednesday evening after at least one major operator of ABC-affiliated stations said it would not broadcast the show \u201cfor the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The operator, Nexstar, said it \u201cstrongly 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his Monday evening monologue, Kimmel suggested Kirk\u2019s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, might have been a pro-Trump Republican. \u201cThe 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,\u201d Kimmel said. \u201cIn between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ABC late-night host\u2019s remarks constituted \u201cthe sickest conduct possible,\u201d FCC chair Brendan Carr told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday. Carr suggested his FCC could move to revoke ABC affiliate licenses as a way to force Disney to punish Kimmel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way,\u201d Carr said. \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 added that the broadcasters, including ABC, \u201chave a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the interview, Carr attacked Kimmel as \u201ctalentless\u201d and suggested the late-night comedian\u2019s comments displayed \u201csome sort of desperate irrelevance.\u201d Disney and ABC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
This was not the first time Carr has gone after ABC in recent months. In July, the Trump appointee told Fox News that long-running daytime talk show \u201cThe View\u201d is \u201cnow in the crosshairs of this administration\u201d over co-host Joy Behar\u2019s scathing criticism of President Trump.<\/p>\n
Kimmel has also been a frequent target of President Trump\u2019s ire. Shortly after CBS announced the cancellation of Stephen Colbert\u2019s late-night talk show \u2014 a move Carr publicly celebrated \u2014 Trump suggested that \u201cNext up will be an even less talented Jimmy Kimmel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Center for American Rights, which has previously lodged bias complaints against NBC, ABC and CBS, on Wednesday filed a complaint with the FCC over Kimmel\u2019s comments, writing that \u201cit is no defense to say that Kimmel was engaging in satire or late-night comedy rather than traditional news.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cABC\u2019s affiliates need to step up and hold ABC accountable as a network for passing through material that fails to respect the public-interest standard to which they are held,\u201d Daniel Suhr, president of the Center for American Rights, wrote in the complaint. \u201cDisney as ABC\u2019s corporate owner needs to act directly to correct this problem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disney\u2019s ABC is taking Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s late night talk show off the air indefinitely amid a controversy over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[712,49,48,361,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-151563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}