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who has covered the television industry since 1992
and writes Buffering, a newsletter about streaming
Photo: Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty Images
Conservative cancel culture has come for Jimmy Kimmel: Walt Disney–owned ABC has announced it’s pulling new episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! “indefinitely” following right-wing outrage over comments he made on his September 15 show about the reaction to the killing of right-wing podcaster and provocateur Charlie Kirk. Disney’s decision follows a move by one of its major affiliate groups, Nexstar, to preempt the show in response.
While Nexstar didn’t say exactly what Kimmel had said that it objected to, and ABC offered no further explanation of its move, FCC chairman Brendan Carr earlier on Wednesday denounced this part of the host’s Monday monologue, per Deadline: “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 with everything they can to score political points from it.” Around 6 p.m. ET Wednesday, Nexstar issued this statement: “Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.” When Vulture asked ABC for comment, a network rep replied, “Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be preempted indefinitely.” Vulture has reached out to Kimmel’s reps for comment and asked Nexstar and ABC for additional clarification of today’s actions.
In the absence of additional information from Disney and Nexstar, it’s impossible to say exactly what Nexstar objected to in Kimmel’s comment or why Disney followed up by putting JKL on hiatus. But based on an examination of MAGA-world social media, it appears as if Fox News and leading influencers like Benny Johnson took Kimmel’s comment that MAGA loyalists were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them” as Kimmel arguing that the accused shooter was actually part of the MAGA movement. On Tuesday, for example, Fox News’s website posted a video of Kimmel’s remarks under the headline “Jimmy Kimmel suggests Kirk shooter was part of ‘MAGA gang.’” Then on Wednesday, right-wing podcaster and Trump loyalist Benny Johnson posted this on X: “Jimmy Kimmel went on air and told the ABC audience that Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a MAGA conservative, effectively blaming Charlie Kirk for his own assassination. Then he accusing [sic] the right of covering it up to ‘score political points.’” Johnson then tagged Carr and demanded ABC stations have their FCC licenses revoked if Kimmel didn’t apologize and ABC didn’t take “corrective action.”
While Kimmel did argue that MAGA was trying to score points off the event, he did not actually state that the shooter was MAGA; instead, he said that people on the right were attributing the shooter’s leanings to politics that were “anything other than” MAGA. And indeed, a host of right-wing figures did spend the days after the shooting speculating that the shooter was a left-wing radical, or trans, or some combination of both. But Kimmel’s right-wing critics took his description of this fact and turned it into Kimmel directly blaming MAGA for the killing. The only way to get to that conclusion, however, is to make a lot of uncharitable assumptions about Kimmel’s thinking. It’s also worth noting that Kimmel’s comments came before the FBI and Utah officials reveal more details about the shooter’s possible motives.
What happens next is hard to say: It’s possible ABC and Disney acted quickly to demonstrate they are willing to accept criticisms from the right and, particularly, a key affiliate group, and to allow Kimmel time to craft a reply. It’s also possible that Wednesday’s actions are just a prelude to ABC canceling Jimmy Kimmel Live! altogether. If that happens, history will have rhymed in a horribly ironic way: Kimmel was hired in 2002 after ABC canceled Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect several months after Maher angered conservatives with comments about 9/11. While ABC was more patient then and waited many months before moving — this was before social media — most observers believe Maher’s fate was sealed when the right got mad.
This story has been updated.