Courtesy of ABC
Jimmy Kimmel‘s recent comments about the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk have led to some serious consequences.
Kimmel’s ABC late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be “preempted indefinitely,” a network spokesperson tells TVLine, after Nexstar — which owns 33 ABC affiliates nationwide, including stations in Nashville, New Orleans and other, smaller markets — decided not to air the show in light of Kimmel’s comments. (TVLine has reached out to Kimmel for comment.)
“Nexstar’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 statement. “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.”
“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, tells Variety. “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.”
Kimmel spoke about Kirk’s murder in his monologue on Monday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, implying that the shooter was actually affiliated with right-wing causes: “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 and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” FCC chairman Brendan Carr quickly took issue with his comments, threatening to penalize the stations airing Kimmel’s show if they don’t “change conduct and take action.”