Disney and the ABC network are taking Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air indefinitely. This follows a controversy over comments the late night comedian made Monday night about Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer and the manga movement and their reaction to the assassination. Let’s get straight to CNN’s chief media affairs correspondent, Brian Stelter.

Brian. What is going on? That’s right. This is fast developing this afternoon, Jake, amid pressure from the Trump aligned FCC. And in the past few minutes, ABC confirmed to CNN that Kimmel’s show will be off the air indefinitely. We have not yet heard from Kimmel or his representatives. That’s how quickly this has been developing.

But let’s back up and look at what Kimmel actually said on the program that has caused controversy. This is from Monday night. In his Monday evening monologue, Kimmel suggested that the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk might have been a pro-Trump Republican. He said, quote, the MAGA gang 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, he said.

In between the finger pointing, there was grieving. Kimmel was expressing what we’ve heard some other liberals say in recent days that the motives are unclear and that maybe the suspect in this case was a Republican or was some sort of far right fringe figure. Of course, there has been a lot of discussion about that in recent days.

There is a lot of evidence pointing in other directions about the suspect, but Kimmel was on the air talking about this, making a very serious commentary amid his jokes in his monologue Monday night. Here’s where it became interesting. Earlier today, the FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, went on a far right webcast and condemned Kimmel and urged ABC to suspend him.

He also talked about possible regulatory punishments of Disney because there are lots of different, stations that have licenses with the FCC. Within the past hour, we’ve heard from a big owner of stations that have affiliations with ABC, a company called Nexstar, saying that they were going to suspend the Kimmel show on their stations.

So, in other words, about two dozen stations were refusing to air Kimmel Show tonight as a result of this controversy. And then following word that some of those stations were basically revolting against Kimmel. Disney, the parent company of ABC, decided to yank the show entirely. So that’s all we know at the moment.

We know that Kimmel will not be on the air tonight or for the foreseeable future, because the network says the show has been yanked off the air indefinitely. Brian, just to take one issue, your interpretation of what Kimmel said, I think is the one that Brendan Carr had and the one, that the individuals at Nexstar have.

But what he said specifically was, quote, the MAGA gang is definitely 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. That can be read in several ways. That could be heard in several ways. It could also be and it could also be argued he’s saying that what the MAGA gang is doing is just trying to make sure that they don’t have any ownership of it, not necessarily that that this killer, this horrible person was part of them.

I mean, I think you’re making a very important point. You’re making a very important point. And let’s take a little bit step further. This was all on Monday night. Nobody seemed to notice this yesterday, Jake. This all erupted in the past few hours when the Trump aligned FCC chairman decided to point at it. Now, I’ve heard from him in the past few minutes, Brendan Carr thanking Nexstar for doing the right thing by yanking the show.

He has not yet commented on ABC, yanking the show altogether across the entire country. But let’s remember that when Stephen Colbert show was canceled over the summer, when a President Trump say, he said, next up will be an even less talented Jimmy Kimmel, it is clear that pro-Trump allies have been trying to target ABC over Kimmel for several weeks now, and tonight they’ve prevailed.

Yeah. Brian Stelter, thanks so much for that breaking news. Let’s get right to the panel. And let me first start by showing I wondered what was going on earlier today when I saw this pop up on Twitter. This is the FCC, Chairman Brendan Carr, on a far right podcast, talking about what Kimmel’s comments were. Let’s, let’s roll that tape.

You know, when you look at the conduct that has taken place by Jimmy Kimmel, it appears to be some of the sickest conduct possible. Obviously, there’s calls for Kim to be fired. I think, you know, you could certainly see a path forward for, suspension over this. And again, you know, the FCC is going to have remedies that we could look at.

Joe, are you are you comfortable with the FCC playing this role? I don’t I don’t think this is a legal issue. I don’t think this can be pointed to the FCC or the Trump administration and say, well, this is about them going after Kimmel because of what he said. Personally, I think it’s more of a cultural issue. And I got to tell you what, I’m about as moderate Republican as you can get them from New York.

I have not been comfortable watching late night television, 15 years, because when you have conservative leanings and you’re constantly mocked and you’re constantly feel like you’re doing something wrong, you shut it off, you don’t watch it anymore. And then what happens is it’s circular. If the host doesn’t have that audience, the host doesn’t worry about keeping an audience like that.

It goes in circles. And at some point you get things like this where you say things and that wasn’t the full quote. The further quote was that he mocked President Trump for flying the flags at half staff in remembrance of Charlie Kirk, and said, it’s like grieving for a four year old as a four year old grieves for a goldfish.

No, no, that was the full quote. That, well, the full quote was, I think he ran the clip of a reporter asking President Trump how he was doing, with the death of Charlie Kirk and President Trump said, I think I’m doing okay. And then he proceeded to talk about the ballroom that was being built on the white House grounds.

I think that was that was the full context. I again, I didn’t say any of this. I’m just trying to, you know, present as accurate a, picture of what did happen. Yeah. This is the FCC commissioner, right? We I don’t think we have seen an FCC commissioner this aggressive in our lifetimes. What do you think of it all? So to the point of whether there’s a legal element here, I think Joe’s right.

Like the First Amendment says Congress shall make no law, which means you can only enforce the First Amendment against the government. So can Jimmy Kimmel sue? No, he can’t he can’t sue ABC for making a decision to remove him. That’s a private entity. But what Donald Trump is doing repeatedly is he’s expanding his executive power in two ways.

One, I would say is precedented. That’s the traditional stuff. I have more authority to hire and fire executive branch officials. I don’t have to respond to Congress, that kind of thing. He’s fighting that out in the court. We’ve seen that before. What’s unprecedented, however, is the way Donald Trump is using official power from the FCC on to go after universities, law firms and media companies that he disagrees with on policy or on politics.

That is new. We’ve not seen that from any president before. This is actually cancel culture. I mean, that’s what this is. The chairman of the fed, Federal Communications Commission, Brant Carr, added on Benny Johnson’s podcast that the broadcasters, including ABC, have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.

Elsewhere in the interview, Carr attacked Kimmel as talentless and suggested the late comedian’s comments displayed some sort of, quote, desperate, irrelevance. Is that is that what we want? The FCC chairman? It’s a very slippery slope, and there’s a pattern. We keep talking about it like it’s not happening, and it just keeps happening over and over and over again with folks he disagrees with.

I’m a Democrat. I’ll say, what happened to Charlie Kirk is disgusting. We should have a court. If he did it, he should be prosecuted to every extent of the law. We shouldn’t have to say that. That’s just common sense. But we also should say the First Amendment matters to everybody, whether they agree or they disagree.

And I just think that what we’re going through right now is unprecedented. It’s unseemly. And I think that that is really getting out of here because it’s just happening more and more and more with folks who disagree. We should let’s we do have, the clip that Jimmy Kimmel said Monday night, let’s, obviously this is not the entire 8 or 9 minute monologue.

This is just one clip of it. But this is what he said. We had some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang 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. Now, the way that Fox, covered what he just said there was Kimmel suggests Kirk assassin was one of the MAGA gang.

Despite reports of leftist leanings. I don’t know that. I think that that is an accurate description. But they have the First Amendment, to write what they want to write. Yeah. The job of the FCC is not to regulate and police content. It’s not. Do we like this? Does this make us comfortable or uncomfortable? I don’t like anything about what you mean, Kimmel said.

Frankly, I agree with Joe. I find his comments reprehensible. But it’s not the FCC’s job to say, do we like this or do we not? And FCC, of course, is a government actor. And I’m I’m thinking sort of off the top of my head here. But if ABC wanted to fight this, clearly they don’t, because they’ve made the decision to dispatch or suspend Jimmy Kimmel if they wanted to fight this.

They might have a basis to go into court the same way that law firms have gone into court and Harvard, among other universities, have gone into court and said this is an overextension of government power, of executive power. This violates the First Amendment. And again, they can bring that because the FCC is a government actor.

But Jimmy Kimmel can not do anything against ABC because so private. One of the thing that, the fact that the FCC commissioner, Brendan Carr did in that interview with Benny Johnson, who, by the way, has said plenty of things that a lot of people find objectionable, is, he suggests that it actually the exact course of action that happened.

He said what could happen is local affiliates, right, could complain to ABC about the content. And then those local affiliates, could say they’re going to refuse to air, Jimmy Kimmel Live. And that’s actually what happened Next star, which owns a bunch of ABC affiliates. They were the first ones to say in a statement and variety broke this news.

We’re not going to we’re going to preempt the show. Is there any coming back from this? Do you think? Well, I don’t think ABC’s canceling him because they’re afraid of the FCC. I think they’re afraid that they’re going to lose whatever audience he has left because that’s such an offensive thing. He said as far. Look, there’s so much media alternatives at this point.

So I think the FCC has the range of authority they have is less and less because there are so many other outlets to reach out to. So if Kimmel wants to reappear somewhere else, he will. I think the point is, though, that again, when you alienate a part of the population who at some point just stops watching, then you have no incentive to keep whatever left of that audience is. There is.

And then, you know, it just kind of goes down the drain.

ABC pulls ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ indefinitely after offensive Charlie Kirk comments

Jimmy Kimmel is taking an involuntary hiatus.

ABC said it is pulling the comedian’s late-night talk show off the air “indefinitely” following his controversial comments about the killing of Charlie Kirk.

“Jimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely,” an ABC spokesperson confirmed to The Post Wednesday, Sept. 17.

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Jimmy Kimmel at the Walt Disney Television 2019 upfront event. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

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Charlie Kirk at the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, UK, in May. Getty Images for The Cambridge Union
Kimmel, 57, faced backlash after he said Monday night that the “MAGA gang” was trying to score political points off Kirk’s murder after the conservative activist was shot dead on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Sept. 10.

“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 said during his monologue.

Nexstar Media Group, the major broadcast company that serves as a primary affiliate for ABC, confirmed that it would “preempt” Kimmel’s program in the wake of his remarks.

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Jimmy Kimmel during an episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Disney via Getty Images

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Kirk at SiriusXM Studios in New York City in 2020. Getty Images
“The company’s 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,” Nexstar said in a press release.

“Nexstar 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,” it continued.

Andrew Alford, the president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, added that Kimmel’s “comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse.”

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Kimmel taping “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in June. Disney via Getty Images
“We do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” he said. “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 Post reached out to Kimmel’s rep for comment.

His remarks, meanwhile, also caught the eye of the Federal Communications Commission, with Chairman Brendan Carr suggesting Wednesday that the late-night host’s remarks may land him and the network in hot water.

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Kirk during the finale of the Tucker Carlson Live Tour in Glendale, Arizona, in 2024. AFP via Getty Images
Carr, in an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson, described the comedian’s monologue as “some of the sickest conduct possible,” before hinting at possible FCC action.

“Any license granted by us at the FCC, that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest,” Carr said, explaining federal regulations governing licensed TV stations which prohibit “news distortion.”

“Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr continued. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly on Kimmel, or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

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Jimmy Kimmel WireImage
The FCC chairman said a public apology from Kimmel would be “a very reasonable, minimal step” for the comedian, ABC and parent company Disney to take.

“There are calls for Kimmel to be fired,” Carr noted. “I think, you know, you could certainly see a path forward for a suspension over this. And, again, you know, the FCC is going to have remedies that we could look at. This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney.”

Kimmel, however, isn’t the first late-night host and comedian to have his show pulled following political controversy.

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Kimmel and Stephen Colbert Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
In July, it was announced that Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” would be ending after its next season.

Although CBS stated that it was “purely a financial decision,” some speculated that the move was in response to the host’s controversial remark that Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over a “60 Minutes” interview was a “big fat bribe.”