ABC Dumps Jimmy Kimmel Over Sick Charlie Kirk Remark

Jimmy Kimmel is off the air. Good riddance.

The vile and disgusting ABC late-night host used his Monday night monologue to make this comment about Charlie Kirk’s assassin (emphasis added):

“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.”

Yes, you read that correctly. And to make matters worse, Kimmel then proceeded to play a video mocking President Donald Trump and suggesting that he wasn’t grieving over Kirk’s death.

This is apparently the sad and pathetic state of late-night comedy in 2025.

It’s no wonder Americans are turning off has-been comedians like Kimmel.

They don’t find his crude jokes funny. And for that matter, neither does FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.

It was Carr, in an appearance Wednesday on Benny Johnson’s show, who methodically explained that broadcasters operate by a different set of standards than others.

Carr’s agency, the Federal Communications Commission, is responsible for regulating America’s airwaves. To obtain a broadcast license from the FCC, companies that own and operate ABC affiliates—like Nexstar and Sinclair—must do so in the public interest.

Mere hours after Carr’s comments, both companies announced plans to preempt Kimmel’s late-night show Wednesday with other programming. ABC subsequently suspended production of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” indefinitely.

Carr’s comments elicited the typical media meltdown we’ve come to expect. It proved they’re out of touch with America—and, in this case, reality.

Americans should be grateful to have a fearless leader like Carr at the FCC. He’s committed to holding companies accountable and unafraid to speak the truth. In this case, Kimmel’s conduct warranted a swift rebuke. He deliberately misled his viewers about Kirk’s killer, suggesting he was a MAGA conservative.

It was too much for Nexstar and Sinclair.

Both companies issued statements Wednesday condemning Kimmel’s comments.

Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said the company’s ABC affiliates would drop Kimmel in favor of other programming.

“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,” Alford 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.”

Sinclair vice chairman Jason Smith went a step further, calling for Kimmel to apologize to the Kirk family and make a personal donation to the Kirk family and Turning Point USA.

“Mr. Kimmel’s remarks were inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country,” Smith said. “We believe broadcasters have a responsibility to educate and elevate respectful, constructive dialogue in our communities. We appreciate FCC Chairman Carr’s remarks today and this incident highlights the critical need for the FCC to take immediate regulatory action to address control held over local broadcasters by the big national networks.”

Sinclair is planning to air a TV special in remembrance of Kirk on Friday during Kimmel’s normal timeslot. It also asked ABC to commit to “professionalism and accountability.”

That’s needed now more than ever.

In the week since Kirk’s assassination, far too many people have made offensive and inappropriate comments about the Turning Point USA leader. Some of them, shockingly celebrating his death, are now out of work and ostracized for their behavior.

Kimmel is by far the most prominent among them. But he is just one of many left-wing demagogues to face consequences in recent months.

The changes sweeping the media landscape since President Donald Trump returned to the White House are vast and significant. They are a hopeful sign that the Left is losing culture war.

Here are some of the other remarkable developments we’ve witnessed this year, as I outlined in my recent speech to the National Conservative Conference about this media counterrevolution.

• After years of hearing Republicans promise to defund PBS and NPR, it finally happened. The nearly 60-year-old Corporation for Public Broadcasting, funded with your tax dollars, announced it was shutting down.
• The long-troubled U.S. Agency for Global Media, which is supposed to support freedom and democracy throughout the world but instead undermined American values, is a shell of its former self.
• Stephen Colbert, another late-night host who spewed nothing but hatred for President Trump, will be without a job next year after CBS canceled his show and permanently ended “The Late Show.”
• CBS’ new parent company, Skydance, made several eye-catching promises in its bid to acquire CBS’ parent company Paramount. These were outlined in letters sent to Carr in July, promising CBS’ reporting would be “fair, unbiased, and fact-based,” it would feature viewpoints from “across the political and ideological spectrum,” and eliminate DEI initiatives.
• At MSNBC, Joy Reid lost her job and Rachel Maddow railed at her employer and then lost her staff to layoffs.
• Lester Holt announced his retirement as anchor of NBC Nightly News.
• Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran went on a social media rant about White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller then found himself fired by ABC News. He then turned around and accused the network of “failing the American people” for not attacking President Trump more vigorously.
• Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos said the editorial page would focus on personal liberties and free markets, prompting editor David Shipley to quit on the spot. The Post lost 75,000 subscribers over that change alone.
• A few months later, notorious Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler left the paper, along with dozens of other longtime employees.
• The Associated Press was barred from the Oval Office and Air Force One over its politicized stylebook and refusal to call the Gulf of America by its proper name.
• The Pentagon replaced NBC News, The New York Times, NPR, and Politico in its press corridor with the New York Post, Breitbart News, One America News, and HuffPost.
• Perhaps the most surprising news of all: ABC paid Trump $15 million to settle a defamation case, CBS paid him $16 million to settle a lawsuit over Kamala Harris’ heavily edited “60 Minutes” interview.

To top it off, Trump this week announced a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times.

Expect to hear cries of self-censorship, complaints of a “fascist takeover,” and comparisons to “Kremlin suppression.” But the truth is simpler: They’re losing their power, and they can’t stand it.

Our counterrevolution needs more warriors like Brendan Carr. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Now is our moment to act.

Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Rob Bluey.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.