Sept. 17, 2025

Why ABC Pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! After His Charlie Kirk Comments

Show Notes
Transcript

In this emergency episode, Johnny Mac discusses Jummy Kimmel's show being pulled by ABC!!!!!

Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night monologue sparked major backlash this week after comments he made about the political right’s reaction to Charlie Kirk’s death. What started as a joke on Jimmy Kimmel Live! quickly escalated into a national controversy, with Nexstar pulling the show from its ABC affiliates and Disney following suit. In this episode, we break down what Kimmel said, why it struck a nerve, how broadcasters are responding, and what this moment means for the future of late-night TV and political speech on the airwaves.

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WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media. Holy cow, wow wow wow wow. Hi.

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I'm Johnny mack Hits an emergency bonus breaking news episode.

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So let me deal you straight here. I have not

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prepped this at all. I'm going to read these articles cold.

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I'm just going to react to them. So what happened

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in my life is I went out a little before

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seven pm Eastern. My nephew needed a ride from the train,

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so I went to pick him up. I'm sitting in

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the parking lot. I'm playing on my phone and I see,

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Holy col ABC is pulling Jimmy Kimmel live from the air.

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What what? And my mind starts spinning. As I drove

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my nephew home, my phone started blowing up. I'm hearing

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from all sorts of people asking me for my take.

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I haven't even read the story yet. I just got home,

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came straight downstairs to the studio, and I'm opening up

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my email from Entertainment Weekly. I have not read this.

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ABC pulls Jimmy Kimmel Live from air indefinitely. Following hosts.

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Charlie Kirk comments, Oh my goodness. So I had seen

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this story broke so fast that when I was on

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the parking lot. The first story I saw was that

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the news came in the wake of some ABC affiliates

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owned by Nextstar Media announcing they were going to preempt

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Jimmy Kimmel's show, and by the time I dropped My

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Nephew off, ABC had pulled the show. Representatives for Kimmel

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have not responded to EW's request for comments. It is

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seven forty five pm Eastern Time as I record this.

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In a press release, Next Star strongly objects to recent

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comments made by mister Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie

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Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in

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its ABC affiliated markets. Now, honestly, I had seen a

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story about this earlier in the day. Newsweek had touched

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upon this and some people being upset with Kimmel's comments,

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and I didn't even include it in the main body

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of the show. I just thought it was the normal

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back in discourse we have in this country. In twenty

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twenty five, Entertainment Weekly points out on Monday's episode of

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Jimmy Kimmel Live, Jimmy said of alleged killer Tyler Robinson,

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quoting Jimmy Kimmel, here, we had some new lows over

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the weekend with the Maga gang desperately trying to characterize

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this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than

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one of them, and with everything they can score political

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points from it. Andrew Alfred is the president of Nexstar's

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broadcasting division. He called Kimmel's comments offensive and insensitive in

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a press release. Alfred said, we do not believe they

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reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the

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local communities in which we are located. Continuing to give

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mister Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve

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is simply not in the public interest at the current time,

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and we've made the difficult decision to preempt the show

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in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we

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move towards the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue. Wow, let

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me throw Kimmel into Google again. I am doing this cold,

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no prep. I just want to react. My head is spinning.

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Let's head on over to Late Night or so. It

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looks like next Door made the announcements and then an

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hour later or so ABC pulled the show. So I'm

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doing a time here. So that would have been more

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or less six thirty Eastern, so three thirty Pacific, so

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they probably hadn't taped Wednesday's show yet. Now part of

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this story, FCC chair Brendan Carr was on Benny Johnson's

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podcast on Wednesday afternoon. Car said, now, listen to this quote.

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The FCC chairman, Brendan Carr said, we can do this

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the easy way or the hard way. These companies can

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find ways to change conduct and take action frankly on

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Kimmel where there's going to be additional work for the

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FCC ahead. Wow, I don't know how to react to that. That. Uh,

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I'm trying not to use a word here that rhymes

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with brett. Late Night writes. Cars suggested that Disney should

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address Kimmel's comments before the FCC gets involved, suggesting Kimmel

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could be suspended. Car said, you certainly could see a

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path forward for suspension over this. Frankly, I think it's

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pastime that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves pushed

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back on Comcast and Disney and say we're gonna preempt

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We're not gonna run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out.

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It's time for them to step up and say this

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garbage to the extent that what comes down in the

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pipe in the future isn't something that serves the needs

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of our local communities. This is absolutely stunning, and I

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wonder if Jimmy will just walk now. I mean, I've

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said many times on this podcast that I don't think

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he was gonna retire, but he has at least floated

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the idea. I could see Jimmy Kimmel, with his personality,

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telling ABC, you know what, I'm out, this is a thing. Wow,

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you know I'm scrolling through threads here. Someone bringing up

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that after Colbert's show was canceled, the President of the

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United States did say I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next,

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so you know clearly lot here. I reached out to

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Mike Chisholm, host of The Letterman podcast. I texted him

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from the car, Hey, you don't happen to be home.

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He's not home. He does other things. He's not on

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my beck and call. Plus we're on different coasts, some

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of the East Coast, he's on the West coast. He

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offered to record something with me later tonight. But the

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reality and I'm dealing with straight here. I teach a

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class on Thursday morning. I'm out the door early Thursday,

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and I've already recorded Thursday's episode, so you're not gonna

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hear me mention this at all on Thursday, although I'm

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going to put a new top on the episode. So

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I'll get back from my class and I'll google Jimmy

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Kimmel and I'll probably do another bonus episode on Thursday night.

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But my head is spinning. My quick take here is, wow,

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this went nuclear quickly and pulling Jimmy Kimmel. I mean,

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I've worked in companies. Usually the bosses you back your challenge,

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you take your lumps. I had a boss once give

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me advice, which is, when you're in a deal, live

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up to the deal all the way, and if you

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can't live with it anymore, don't renew it. But when

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you're in the deal, live with the deal. He taught me,

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you back your talent all the way. And ABC pulling

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Jimmy Kimmel over the comments just absolutely stunning. The show

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is pulled indefinitely, So there you go. There's a bonus

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episode of Daily Comedy News Normal episode Thursday morning. I

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will check in with you on Thursday afternoon. I am

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just absolutely stunned by this

Why ABC Pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! After His Charlie Kirk Comments

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