The Disney-owned American television network ABC announced on Wednesday the “indefinite” withdrawal of Jimmy Kimmel Live, one of the country’s most famous late-night programs, following the host’s comments on Monday’s show, in which he accused the MAGA movement of trying to gain political advantage from the murder of ultra-conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“We hit rock bottom over the weekend with the MAGA gang (an acronym for Make America Great Again) desperately trying to portray this guy (Tyler Robinson) who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to capitalize on it politically,” Kimmel stated.
The decision came moments after Nextstar, one of the largest television network owners in the United States, announced that it would pull Kimmel’s show from its schedules. “Nexstar strongly opposes Kimmel’s recent comments regarding the murder of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC affiliate markets,” the company’s statement reads.
“Kimmel’s comments regarding Kirk’s death are offensive and insensitive at a critical moment in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, viewpoints, or values ​​of the local communities we serve,” Nexstar’s president of broadcasting, Andrew Alford, said in a statement.
The company’s department head also stated that “continuing to provide Kimmel with a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at this time, and we have made the difficult decision to replace his show in an effort to allow cooler heads to prevail while we move toward resuming a respectful and constructive dialogue.”
US President Donald Trump welcomed the decision, expressing his “congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what needed to be done.” “Kimmel has no talent and has worse ratings than even Stephen Colbert, if that’s possible,” he said, referring to the CBS host whose show was canceled in July after criticizing the network’s parent company, Paramount, for settling a lawsuit with Trump for $16 million.
In the same message, the White House resident encouraged NBC to also pull the shows of Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, who host two other prominent late-night shows, and expressed his displeasure with the disappearance of Colbert’s segment.
