On Sept. 17, ABC, announced its decision to pull “Jimmy Kimmel Live” off the air indefinitely. The announcement was made two days after Jimmy Kimmel spoke about the death of Charlie Kirk and President Donald Trump’s reaction to the event.
During the monologue, Kimmel stated, “We had 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.” This came after Kirk’s killer was detained and identified as 22-year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson.
The Walt Disney Company, ABC’s parent company, called his comments “ill-timed and insensitive.”
Kimmel then showed a recording of Trump outside the White House during an interview. Trump was asked how he was holding up following Kirk’s death. “I think very good. And by the way, right there, you see all the trucks? They just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House.” Kimmel joked, “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend, this is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.” Kimmel said that there was something wrong with Trump, questioning “who thinks like that?”
Following the decision, Trump congratulated ABC on its decision regarding Kimmel’s late-night show on Truth Social, calling the show “ratings challenged.” He also said that two other late-night hosts, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, should be next.
Fallon, Meyers, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart all joked about the situation on their own late-night shows that same week. Fallon said his show will not be censored in any way in response to Kimmel’s cancellation. Out of fear, during a monologue about Trump’s recent trip to the U.K., a voiceover went over Fallon’s dialogue to compliment Trump and his appearance.
Meyers said he was mentioning on an unrelated note, “That I’ve always reminded and respected Mr. Trump” before his show commenced. Stewart spoke about the Trump administration’s rules on free speech and all the criticism before joking, “Some people would say that. Not me though, I think it’s great.”
Online, people pointed out that Kimmel said nothing insensitive towards Kirk’s death and that the joke was aimed at Trump. The day after Kirk’s death, Kimmel referred to the situation as a senseless murder and stated, “I’ve seen a lot of extraordinarily vile responses to this from both
sides of the political spectrum. Some people are cheering this, which is something I won’t ever understand.”
Six days after the indefinite suspension, Kimmel was back.
The Walt Disney Company stated, “We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
The show, however, will not return to its time slot with every ABC station. Sinclair, one of the country’s largest broadcasting groups, said they will be replacing his show with a news program despite the reversal of the decision.
Many worried that Kimmel would have to put a limit on the things he can say on the show. Kimmel showed people on the very first night back that he would not.
Kimmel joked how people should feel sorry for Trump, as his efforts only made Kimmel’s show more popular and that “he might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.” Kimmel expressed how Trump is unable to “take a joke.”
He said that “we have to speak out against it,” in reference to Trump openly expressing how other late-night show hosts should lose their jobs alongside all the Americans that work on the show with them.
A week after his return, Kimmel and Colbert guest starred in each other’s show on the same day from New York City. ABC and CBS aired the interviews simultaneously, the pair even waving to themselves in Brooklyn from Colbert’s studio in Manhattan.
On each show, they discussed their recent cancellations, temporary in Kimmel’s case and permanent in Colbert’s. Kimmel said how they wanted to come together for this because they “thought it might be a fun way to really drive the president nuts.”
They each got the chance to express their initial reactions to their own cancellations. Colbert explained that he didn’t even learn about the cancellation until he arrived back from a vacation, while Kimmel learned about his cancellation while taking a phone call with ABC executives from the bathroom.
The two were extremely direct in their criticism of Trump, expressing how honored they were to be there as a “fellow no-talent late night loser.”
“I never imagined that we’d ever have a president like this, and I hope we don’t ever have another president like this again,” Kimmel said.
