Disney says Jimmy Kimmel’s show will be pre-empted indefinitely following Charlie Kirk assassination comments
ABC host Jimmy Kimmel ignited a firestorm over his comments about the alleged Charlie Kirk assassin
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Disney is pulling ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” “indefinitely,” the company confirmed to Fox News Digital.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely,” a Disney spokesperson said.
Nexstar Media Group, which owns hundreds of television stations, announced earlier it would preempt Kimmel’s show on its ABC affiliates starting Wednesday night “for the foreseeable future” and would replace it with other programming over his comments about alleged Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson.
“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,” Nexstar’s broadcasting chief Andrew Alford said in a press release.
“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 statement continued.
FCC CHAIR LEVELS THREAT AGAINST ABC, DISNEY AFTER KIMMEL SUGGESTED CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSIN WAS ‘MAGA’
On Monday, Kimmel accused conservatives of reaching “new lows” in trying to pin a left-wing ideology on 22-year-old suspect Tyler Robinson, even though prosecutors reaffirmed those ties in Tuesday’s indictment.
“We hit 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,” Kimmel said.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr had issued a threat against Disney if it didn’t address the controversy.
Appearing on Wednesday’s “The Benny Show,” Carr called Kimmel’s comments “some of the sickest conduct” and suggested there were potential “avenues” the FCC could pursue.
“In some quarters, there’s a very concerted effort to try to lie to the American people about the nature … of one of the most significant newsworthy public interest acts that we’ve seen in a long time in what appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into that narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or a Republican-motivated person,” Carr told host Benny Johnson.
“And I’ve been very clear from the moment that I have become chairman of the FCC, I want to reinvigorate the public interest. And what people don’t understand is that the broadcasters, and you’ve gotten this right, are entirely different than people that use other forms of communication. They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest,” the official added.
“Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” Carr said.
COMPLETE COVERAGE CHARLIE KIRK
Kimmel’s comments came one day after both FBI officials and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said that Robinson held a “leftist ideology” and was increasingly radicalized in recent years. It was also revealed that he had a romantic relationship with a transgender partner who was biologically male and transitioning to female.
On Tuesday, Kimmel took aim at Vice President JD Vance for “pointing his little mascara-stained finger directly at the left” as guest host of “The Charlie Kirk Show.” Vance said on the show that most “lunatics” in American politics belong to the far left.
“And by ‘statistical fact,’ he means complete bull—,” Kimmel reacted.
