ABC pulls Kimmel after hearing from dozens of affiliates about his Charlie Kirk comments

ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely beginning Wednesday after comments that he made about Charlie Kirk’s killing led groups owning dozens of ABC-affiliated stations to say they would not air the show.

In a statement, Nexstar Communications said, “Nexstar’s owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network will preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show.  Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest of ABC’s affiliate groups, said that it also objected to Kimmel’s comments, and said that it would “not lift the suspension of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ on our stations until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability.” It also called on Kimmel to make a direct apology to the Kirk family, and for the network to make a “meaningful donation” to them and Turning Point USA.

Nexstar owns 32 ABC affiliates among its total of 200 television stations. Sinclair owns 29 ABC affiliates, according to a list of their stations on Wikipedia. Only 8 stations are directly owned by ABC, with 234 other stations listed as network affiliates..

The FCC licenses broadcast stations, not networks, so Nexstar and Sinclair, which aired the Kimmel remarks, would potentially come under the agency’s scrutiny in any investigation.

ABC, which has aired Kimmel’s late-night show since 2003, moved swiftly after Nexstar said it would pull the show starting Wednesday. Kimmel’s comments about Kirk’s death “are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse,” said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division. 

Sinclair said that a tribute to Kirk will air on ABC stations in Kimmel’s time slot on Friday.

ABC’s statement did not cite a reason for why his show was preempted.

Kimmel made several comments about the reaction to Kirk’s assassination on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Monday and Tuesday nights, including that “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.”

In his monologue on Monday, Kimmel said that “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.”

Authorities say Tyler Robinson, 22, who is charged with killing Kirk, grew up in a conservative household but was enmeshed in “leftist ideology.” His parents told investigators he had turned politically left and pro-LGBTQ rights in the last year. Utah records show he was registered as a voter, but not affiliated with either political party. His voter status is inactive, meaning he did not vote in two regular general elections. He told his transgender partner that he targeted Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred.”

Local ABC affiliate WSIL-TV is currently owned by Allen Media Group, but a sale of the station is pending to Gray Media, who owns KFVS-TV in Cape Girardeau, among many others.


(AP Photo Chris Pizello)