“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” has done a full 360° in the last couple of weeks, drawing mixed reactions from celebrities and political leaders all over social media.
Controversy around the show started on Sept. 15 after Kimmel gave a monologue about Republican leaders’ reactions to American political activist Charlie Kirk’s death while on air. His comments focused mostly on Tyler Robinson, the man charged with assassinating Kirk on Sept. 10.
“The MAGA Gang (is) 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.
He went on to criticize President Donald Trump’s reaction specifically, stating: “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
Like many, Kimmel’s first reaction to the news of Kirk’s assassination was one of sympathy, not accusations or criticisms. The day of the shooting, he posted on Instagram saying: “Instead of angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks…”
Regardless, chaos broke loose online after Kimmel’s Monday night comments. Tuesday night, former West Virginia state delegate Derrick Evans posted on the social media platform X, saying, “Jimmy Kimmel LIED to his audience by claiming Charlie Kirk’s assassin is MAGA. I’m tagging @jimmykimmel @JimmyKimmelLive so we can all demand he apologize & tell his audience the truth.”
Wednesday morning, Elon Musk wrote on X, “Jimmy Kimmel is disgusting.”
That same night, Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, went on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast and called Kimmel’s remarks “the sickest conduct possible.”
He then jumped to threats, stating, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” He threatened to revoke local stations’ licenses as punishment.
Conveniently, just hours after Carr’s statements, Nexstar, an owner of ABC affiliate stations across the U.S., announced that it would preempt Kimmel’s show “for the foreseeable future” because of his comments regarding Kirk.
Quickly after, ABC announced it was pulling Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show “indefinitely,” pulling the plug as Kimmel was getting ready to tape Wednesday night’s episode.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest of ABC’s affiliate groups, issued a statement of support later that night, saying they also objected to Kimmel’s comments and would continue the ban. They went a step further, calling for Kimmel to make a direct apology to the Kirk family and asking the network to make a “meaningful donation” to them and Turning Point USA, Kirk’s nonprofit.
Nexstar is hoping to take over a rival firm, Tegna, in a $6.2 billion deal, which would require FCC approval. The merger would create a mega-company with 265 stations, representing 80% of U.S. TV households. Nexstar and Sinclair both want the FCC to lift its 39% national TV station ownership cap so they can continue expanding. Some speculate that Sinclair and Nexstar dropped the show just to get in the FCC’s good graces, drawing criticisms of the government’s role in censorship.
After news of the show’s suspension broke Wednesday night, social media exploded.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, President Trump applauded ABC for “finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” claimed that Kimmel “has ZERO talent,” and ominously threatened two other late-night show hosts. “That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!” he wrote.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, through a post on X, supported the decision, stating, “When a person says something that a ton of people find offensive, rude, dumb in real time and then that person is punished for it that’s not cancel culture. That is consequences for your actions.”
On the other hand, much of Hollywood condemned the decision. Actor Ben Stiller posted on X, saying, “This isn’t right.” Actor Jamie Lee Curtis, comedian Wanda Sykes, actor Jean Smart, comedian Michael Kosta and more all posted on social media, either voicing support for Kimmel or criticizing the encroachment of free speech.
Even former President Barack Obama chimed in, saying the Trump administration “has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”
Because Disney owns ABC, a campaign emerged on social media urging consumers to cancel their subscriptions to Disney streaming services and Hulu. While Disney is yet to release how many subscribers they lost as a result, thousands posted pictures of their cancellation receipts, and others posted that the Disney+ cancellation page kept crashing…presumably from the sudden rise in visitation. Disney also struggled in the stock market. Disney’s market capitalization “had fallen by $4.2 billion, or 2.5%” by Sept. 19, according to a Snopes report.
Disney finally relented, bringing the show back on Tuesday, Sept. 23. Sinclair and Nexstar, representing a combined 25% of ABC affiliates, continued to preempt the show in protest.
During his opening monologue, Kimmel was very emotional, almost breaking down a few times. He said it was never his “intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” and clarified that he didn’t intend to “blame any specific group.” He went on to praise the importance of free speech, saying, “This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
That night, President Trump, quite eloquently, posted again on Truth Social. “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back… his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there. Why would they want someone back…who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE,” he said.
Kimmel’s first episode back averaged 6.26 million viewers via traditional television, a number three times greater than his average episode views. A video of the monologue posted on the show’s official YouTube page brought in a whopping 15.9 million views in under 24 hours.
On Kimmel’s Thursday night show, he thanked President Trump for the bump in ratings. “And I want to say, we couldn’t have done it without you, Mr. President. Thank you very much.”
On Friday, Sept. 19, both Nexstar and Sinclair announced they would end their preemption of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and said the show would return to their airwaves immediately.
So there you have it. Kimmel is back on air, his ratings are higher than ever in the wake of such controversy and public outrage seemingly worked to make the change happen. Now that we have felt the power of government censorship and the power of angry citizens, I’m left with one question.
Should we celebrate this loud win in America’s fight against censorship, or is it simply the start of a very long, deafening battle?
