ABC‘s decision to pull “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from its network indefinitely sent shockwaves through the media industry and political world, with commentators criticizing the decision as an act of censorship.
Disney’s ABC decided to take its flagship late-night program off the schedule “indefinitely” after Nexstar Media, one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the U.S., vowed to pre-empt airings of the program after “strongly objecting” to Kimmel’s comments on Kirk.
Wanda Sykes, who was set to guest on “Kimmel” on Wednesday evening before the taping was canceled, posted a video on Instagram showing support to the late-night host and criticizing the Trump administration.
“Let’s see. He didn’t end the Ukraine war or solve Gaza within his first week. But he did end freedom of speech within his first year. Hey, for those of you who pray, now’s the time to do it. Love you, Jimmy.”
“This isn’t right,” wrote Ben Stiller.
MSNBC host Chris Hayes said, “This is the most straightforward attack on free speech from state actors I’ve ever seen in my life and it’s not even close.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom accused the Republican Party of not believing in free speech, saying “they are censoring you in real time.”
The Lever founder and “Don’t Look Up” co-writer David Sirota cited his outlet’s reporting that Nexstar is currently seeking approval on a merger and lobbying the FCC to end local ownership rules.
Don Lemon called the decision “some scary shit” and said that “the folks that are complaining about canceling people are canceling people. What does that tell you? That they don’t believe in anything they’re saying. This is a very dangerous, scary moment.”
Mike Birbiglia called for his fellow comedians to stand up for Kimmel following ABC’s historic decision. He wrote, “I’ve spent a lot of time in public and private defending comedians I don’t agree with. If you’re a comeidian and you don’t call out the insanity of pulling Kimmel off the air – don’t bother spouting off about free speech anymore.”
Actor and podcaster Paul Scheer wrote on Threads, “So let me get this straight. Kimmel is off the air for his comments about the politicization of an assassination but this is totally fine.” He linked to a video of Fox commentator Brian Kilmeade calling for homeless people to be killed.
Speaking to MSNBC’S Jen Psaki, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker said, “It’s intimidation, clearly. And this is what we’re seeing across the board from the Trump administration. They’re using the power of the government to go after businesses, to get them to do things that they need or want, right, either to pay them, as we have seen, or to fire people, as we have seen. And here we have a comedian. I mean, this is somebody who’s on every night, frankly, probably offending somebody every single night.”
“Look, did he get some things wrong? Yes. But he’s not a commentator, a news anchor,” Pritzker continued. “This is somebody who’s a comedian, for goodness’ sakes. And now we have got the Trump administration literally targeting individuals. You saw it with Stephen Colbert. Now you’re seeing it with Kimmel. Anybody that’s criticizing this administration, they’re using the power of government to intimidate companies to fire people.”
Kimmel became embroiled in criticism from conservative commentators for his monologue on Monday’s broadcast, in which he made comments on Kirk’s suspected shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson from Utah, and that the “MAGA gang” was “trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
In the hours prior to ABC and Nexstar’s decision to take Kimmel off the air, Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr threatened to take action against ABC. Once Kimmel was pulled, Carr released a statement on social media, thanking Nexstar for “doing the right thing”: “Local broadcasters have an obligation to serve the public interest. While this may be an unprecedented decision, it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community.”
See more notable reactions to the Kimmel news below.
