By Nick Bond

Copyright news

It comes as one major broadcast company responsible for pulling him from the airwaves issued a public list of demands from the star if he wants his show back – among them, sizeable donations to Charlie Kirk’s family and to the right-wing organisation he founded.

And talk show legend David Letterman is the latest celeb to speak out against Kimmel’s axing, describing the situation as “misery”: “We see where all this is going, correct? It’s managed media. And it’s no good.”

The President of Nexstar Media Group, affiliate owner of US TV network ABC which airs Jimmy Kimmel Live!, announced yesterday that they would pull the star’s show “indefinitely” due to remarks he made about President Donald Trump and slain right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.

Now, a new report in the Daily Mail claims that the comedian is eager to “break his relationship with [the network] forever” and is preparing to appear as a guest on fellow talk show host Stephen Colbert’s program on rival network CBS, before Colbert’s show is axed next year.

“Jimmy is pissed over the decision to suspend him and the show and he isn’t going to take this lightly, as he is actively looking for ways to get out of his contract,” a source told the outlet.

“This is the last straw and Jimmy is now looking to forever break his relationship with ABC forever.”

In an extraordinary development, another of the TV bosses responsible for pulling Kimmel off the air issued a list of demands of the host if he wants to return to screens.

Sinclair is a broadcasting company that makes up the largest ABC affiliate group in the US. In a press release issued yesterday, the company’s vice chairman Jason Smith laid out a list of demands to be met before they would lift the show’s suspension.

They include having “formal discussions” with ABC “regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability.”

They also called for Kimmel to make a “direct apology” to Kirk’s family, and for him to make a “meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA.” Turning Point is the non-profit organisation Kirk co-founded that advocated for conservative politics in high schools, colleges and universities. Kirk had amassed an estimated personal wealth of around $US12 million ($18m) at the time of his death.

Smith finished the list of demands by reiterating that the company would not allow Kimmel back on-air until it was “confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform.”

Fallout continues from Kimmel’s axing

Talk show legend David Letterman is the latest high-profile celeb to denounce Kimmel’s suspension, declaring: “This is misery.”

“I feel bad about this,” he said at The Atlantic Festival 2025 today, as per Variety.

“We see where this is all going, correct? It’s managed media. And it’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous. And you can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works.”

Earlier, former US President Barack Obama spoke out against Kimmel being taken off the air.

“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 wrote on social media overnight.

“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.”

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is continuing to push for more talk show hosts and even TV networks that criticise him to be taken off-air.

Trump yesterday celebrated the news that Kimmel had been suspended, publicly calling for other major US late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers to also have their shows axed: “Do it NBC!!!” he posted.

Today he went a step further, arguing that TV networks he deems unsupportive of his administration should have their licenses revoked.

“I have read someplace that the networks were 97% against me, again, 97% negative, and yet I won and easily, all seven swing states,” he said, referring to his election win last year.

“They give me only bad publicity, press. I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”

President Trump said this decision would be up to Chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr.

What Kimmel said

Kimmel had insinuated that slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin was a member of the “MAGA gang” while mocking US President Donald Trump’s response to his death during his opening monologue in Monday night’s episode of his talk show.

The Jimmy Kimmel Live host claimed during the monologue that right-wing pundits were hitting “new lows” in trying to suggest the suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, wasn’t “MAGA.”

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise 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.

He then mocked President Trump’s response to the deadly shooting, slamming the White House for flying flags at half-mast and calling out Trump for discussing the construction of a new White House ballroom when asked about Kirk in an interview days after the killing.

“This is not how an adult grieves the murder of somebody he called a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK?” Kimmel said.

On Thursday Nexstar Media Group, which has more than 200 partner stations across the US, announced that it would pull Kimmel’s show indefinitely in light of the remarks.

In doing so, the President of Nexstar labelled Kimmel’s jokes “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse.”

“We do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said in a statement.

“Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to pre-empt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”