Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! was taken off the air indefinitely by ABC on Wednesday following criticism of on-air comments the host made in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing.
President Trump suggested on Thursday that Kimmel’s show was suspended for “bad ratings” and his “lack of talent” in addition to the remarks he made during Monday’s show.
“Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk,” Trump said when he and the prime minister were asked by a reporter whether free speech is “more under attack in Britain or America” in light of the show’s indefinite hiatus.
“Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person,” the president continued. “He had very bad ratings and they should have fired him a long time ago. So you know, you can call that free speech or not, he was fired for lack of talent.”
ABC did not say that Kimmel has been fired, nor has it given a reason for taking the show off the air. “Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be pre-empted indefinitely,” an ABC spokesperson said in a brief statement to media outlets on Wednesday night.
During his monologue on Monday, Kimmel suggested that President Trump’s supporters were trying to “score political points” by portraying Kirk’s accused killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, as a left-wing radical.
“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,” Kimmel said before mocking comments Trump made in the days following his death.
ABC’s decision came after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr threatened to punish the network if it did not take action. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said on a right-wing podcast on Wednesday afternoon.
Evelyn McGee-Colbert, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearney attend the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sept. 14. (Francis Specker/CBS via Getty Images)
Former President Barack Obama also addressed the Kimmel news on Thursday.
“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 said on X, linking to articles about Kimmel and a Washington Post opinion columnist who said she fired for posts she made about the Kirk shooting.
“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.”
Wanda Sykes, who was scheduled to be a guest on Kimmel’s show Wednesday night, reacted by criticizing Trump.
“He didn’t end the Ukraine war, or solve Gaza, within his first week,” Sykes said in an Instagram video. “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.”
