Jimmy Kimmel pulled by ABC: When will he return to TV, Obama weighs in, and other updates

Following pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show off the air Wednesday over remarks he made following the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk.

Kimmel, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, touched on Kirk’s shooter in his monologue Monday night, saying, “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.”

Brendan Carr, chair of the FCC, called Kimmel’s remarks “the sickest conduct possible” in an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson Wednesday afternoon. Carr also threatened to yank ABC’s broadcast license from parent company Disney.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Carr also encouraged local media companies to “push back” against Disney programming that “falls short of community values.” Hours later, two companies that own numerous local TV stations — Nexstar and Sinclair — announced they would preempt Kimmel’s show on their stations, forcing ABC’s hand.

“Jimmy Kimmel Live will be preempted indefinitely,” an ABC spokesperson said. Kimmel, who was preparing to film Wednesday’s show when news of his suspension was announced, had not publicly commented.

Both Trump and Carr celebrated the unprecedented move Wednesday night. “Great News for America,” Trump proclaimed on his Truth Social platform, while Carr told Fox News host Sean Hannity: “I’m very glad to see that American broadcasters are standing up to serve the interests of their community. We don’t just have this progressive foie gras coming out from New York and Hollywood.”

FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, a nominee of former President Joe Biden, criticized the move, writing on social media an “inexcusable act of political violence by one disturbed individual must never be exploited as justification for broader censorship and control.”

“This administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression,” Gomez added.

Here are the latest updates:

While ABC made the abrupt decision to yank Kimmel’s show off the air, the network reportedly hopes to get its top comedian back on TV soon.

The Wall Street Journal reported Disney is monitoring the situation and could return the show to its lineup within “the next several days.” Brian Stelter, CNN’s chief media analyst, does not seem convinced that’s going to happen.

“Kimmel’s contract was coming up for renewal at the end of this year, and he has previously dropped hints about retiring,” Stelter wrote in his Reliable Sources newsletter. “So, did his retirement start last night?”

Kimmel has hosted his show on ABC since 2003. His current contract runs through May 2026.

The soonest Kimmel could return is Monday. ABC replaced Jimmy Kimmel Live! in its lineup with reruns of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune through Friday.

The decision to pull Kimmel was made by Disney CEO Robert A. Iger and cochair Dana Walden, according to the New York Times.

If Trump has his way, two more comedians could also soon be forced off the air.

In a social media post celebrating Kimmel’s suspension, Trump pushed NBC to take Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon and Late Night host Seth Meyers off the air.

“That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!” Trump wrote.

Meyers has been critical of the Trump administration, in line with CBS’s/ Stephen Colbert and Kimmel. Fallon has largely stayed away from politics.

NBC has not publicly responded to Trump’s remarks.

During an interview on CNBC Thursday morning, Carr claimed Kimmel appeared to “directly mislead the American public” about Kirk’s suspected killer during the monologue.

“The issue that arose here, where lots and lots of people were upset, was not a joke,” Carr said. “It was not making fun.”

Documents released by police indicate Kirk was targeted over his conservative political beliefs. Kimmel briefly suggested Kirk’s killer was a conservative before mocking Trump’s reaction to the assassination.

Former President Barack Obama urged media companies to fight back against the Trump administration after a threat from the head of the FCC led to Disney removing Kimmel from the air.

“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current 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,” Obama wrote on social media Thursday.

“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent,” Obama added, “and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.”

Nexstar’s decision to preempt Kimmel’s show comes as the company needs approval from the Trump administration for a merger with Tegna, anothercompany that owns several local media outlets.

The $6.2 billion merger requires the approval of the same FCC that celebrated Nexstar’s decision to punish a Trump foe. The circumstances are similar to CBS’s decision to end Colbert’s late-night show while its parent company, Paramount Global, was seeking FCC approval for a sale to Skydance Media.

Nexstar currently owns 23 ABC-affiliated stations, including two in Pennsylvania — WHTM-TV in Harrisburg and WJET-TV in Erie. Tegna owns 13 ABC-affiliated stations, including WNEP-TV in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.

Just half an hour after Nexstar pulled Kimmel’s show, it confirmed plans to file the merger paperwork to the FCC by Sept. 30.

While many local ABC stations across the country are affiliates run by other companies, 6abc (WPVI-TV) in Philadelphia is owned by Disney and operated by ABC.

There are about 245 ABC stations across the country, and eight are owned by the company. In addition to WPVI, it owns WABC (New York City), WLS-TV (Chicago), KABC (Los Angeles), KTRK-TV (Houston), KGO-TV (San Francisco Bay Area), KFSN (Fresno, Calif.), and WTVD (Durham and Raleigh, N.C.).

So if and when Kimmel returns to the airwaves in Philly will be up to ABC and not a company like Nexstar or Sinclair.

Both ABC and Fox News are included on your cable bill, but the two channels are treated much differently by the government.

There are five commercial broadcast networks in the U.S.: ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and the CW. PBS is a noncommercial education station, and there are three Spanish networks: Telemundo, Univision, and Estrella TV.

The FCC grants a network’s owners a license to air content over publicly owned airwaves, which is why they are free to watch for users with a digital antenna. But that also grants the government power to regulate the content that airs on those networks under a mandate to operate in the public interest.

The Trump administration has used that power to pressure companies over content it views as critical of the president. In December, ABC agreed to a $15 million settlement with Trump over comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos.

The FCC announced a probe of 60 Minutes over how it edited an interview with Kamala Harris around the same time Trump sued CBS, though Carr said in an interview in May the two were unrelated.

The FCC is also currently investigating Comcast, NBC’s parent company, to probe its relationship with local affiliates. NBC was also forced to accommodate Trump after allowing his 2024 opponent, Kamala Harris, to appear on Saturday Night Live.