By Peter Weber
Copyright theweek
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Less than $3 per week
View Profile
The Explainer
Talking Points
The Week Recommends
Newsletters
From the Magazine
The Week Junior
Food & Drink
Personal Finance
All Categories
Newsletter sign up
ABC shelves ‘Kimmel Live’ after Trump FCC threat
‘A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the president doesn’t like what they say’
Newsletter sign up
FCC commissioner Brendan Carr and Donald Trump in 2024
(Image credit: Brandon Bell / Getty Images)
Peter Weber, The Week US
18 September 2025
What happened
ABC last night “indefinitely” suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after station owner Nexstar said it would pull the program over comments Kimmel made about the conservative response to Charlie Kirk’s death. Hours earlier, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr had threatened to punish the Disney-owned network if it did not take action against the late-night comedy show.
Who said what
Conservatives slammed Kimmel for saying during his Monday night monologue that the “MAGA gang” is “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.”
Carr told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson yesterday that Kimmel’s “lie” about the political beliefs of Kirk’s shooter was “a very, very serious issue right now for Disney” and ABC’s “licensed” affiliate stations. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said, and if “these companies” don’t “take action, frankly, on Kimmel,” then the FCC would. The agency can revoke licenses for stations or levy fines. After Nexstar said it would preempt Kimmel, Carr publicly thanked the company, which owns 32 ABC stations and needs FCC permission and a media-consolidation waiver for its proposed $6.2 billion purchase of rival station owner Tegna.
Kimmel’s suspension drew widespread condemnation from free-speech advocates and others outside President Donald Trump’s orbit. “A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the president doesn’t like what they say,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) said on social media. ABC “caved,” said Ari Cohn at the advocacy group FIRE, and “until institutions grow a backbone and learn to resist government pressure,” the U.S. is a “country where late-night talk show hosts serve at the pleasure of the president.”
Trump, writing on social media from Windsor Castle during a state visit to Britain, congratulated ABC for “finally having the courage to do what had to be done” and urged NBC to fire late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. When CBS canceled Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” in July — days before the FCC approved its parent company’s long-pending merger with Skydance — Trump similarly applauded and posted, “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.”
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week’s Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today’s Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
Explore More
Donald Trump
Peter Weber, The Week US
Social Links Navigation
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site’s launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
September 18 editorial cartoons
Thursday’s political cartoons include a man who would be king, an inconsistent court, and social media in the trash
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues – laughs are sadly ‘thin on the ground’
Talking Point
Disappointing sequel to the classic rock’n’roll spoof
What the 2025 Autumn Budget could mean for your wallet
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will reveal her latest plan to balance the nation’s finances in November
You might also like
What is Donald Trump’s visit worth to the UK economy?
In the Spotlight
Centrepiece of the president’s trip, business-wise, is a ‘technology partnership’
Trump’s visit: the mouse and the walrus
Britain is keen to point to its own ‘tangible results’, but the US administration has made their demands clear
Is hate speech still protected speech?
Talking Points
Pam Bondi’s threat to target hate speech raises concerns
Supreme Court: Will it allow Trump’s tariffs?
Justices fast-track Trump’s appeal to see if his sweeping tariffs are unconstitutional
Venezuela: Was Trump’s air strike legal?
A Trump-ordered airstrike targeted a speedboat off the coast of Venezuela, killing all 11 passengers on board
3 killed in Trump’s second Venezuelan boat strike
Legal experts said Trump had no authority to order extrajudicial executions of noncombatants
Is Kash Patel’s fate sealed after Kirk shooting missteps?
TODAY’S BIG QUESTION
The FBI’s bungled response in the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting has director Kash Patel in the hot seat
Russian drone tests Romania as Trump spins
Trump is ‘resisting congressional plans to impose newer and tougher penalties on Russia’s energy sector’
View More ▸
Contact Future’s experts
Terms and Conditions
Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy
Advertise With Us
The Week is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street
