Jimmy Kimmel’s run in late-night TV is (likely) over after Nexstar-owned affiliates decided to preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” over comments the host made about Tyler Robinson, Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer.
“Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXST), today announced that the company’s owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network will preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show,” the company said in its statement.
That, in turn, prompted Disney-owned ABC to pull the show “indefinitely.”
READ MORE: ABC Preempting ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ Indefinitely After Vile Comments About Charlie Kirk’s Murder
Progressives in the media and across the Internet have collectively risen up to scream about “fascism” and the freedom of speech, based on comments made earlier today by Brendan Carr, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said in a podcast interview. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
But the same progressives (including those with anchor, reporter, or pundit jobs in the media) who are ever so worried about the freedom of speech being curtailed by government pressure worked very hard to try and convince Americans that the government should police “misinformation.”
Kimmel Told a Vile Lie—And the Network Let It Run Unchecked
“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,” Kimmel said the night before on his show.
But the show, like all late-night shows, is pre-taped hours beforehand and edited to fit in its designated time slot. Typically, network Standards and Practices departments review the material for any legally problematic material. Apparently, making a claim that was completely unsupported by facts to try to shift the blame of a killing off on a group of people targeted by that (alleged) killer was not problematic in the eyes of ABC’s Standards and Practices department.
And please do not give me the excuse that this was a “joke” or some other foolishness like that. He was making a political point without any semblance of a legitimate punchline to accompany the statement. He was straight-up calling Tyler Robinson a “one of them” (meaning “MAGA”) and denying that the young man was inspired in any way by leftist political rhetoric.
The Affiliates Spoke, and the Network Listened
Neither ABC nor Disney moved to immediately cave to pressure from Carr and the FCC. Truthfully, I wish Carr had let the TV equivalent of natural selection work its way through without his commentary, but this cancellation came after the network’s affiliates spoke up in outrage.
One thing you might not realize is that, while it’s not always visible, local media tend to be a bit more neutral than the national programming. Yes, the journalism industry as a whole is filled with center-left workers, but the local outlets tend to bear the brunt of the outrage from local viewers. So while ABC and Disney are safely insulated from angry people in various markets throughout Not The Coastal Urban Metropolises Of America, it is extremely bad for business for the local affiliates to air content guaranteed to piss off a huge chunk of their audience during an extremely tense time like this.
I don’t know how closely you all pay attention to your local media outlets, but advertising revenue is not the most consistent thing right now, and enraging and turning away your audience is ill-advised at best.
The Anti-Misinformation Crowd Is Mad Kimmel Got Fired for Egregious Misinformation
Let’s take a look at guys like Chris Hayes, who are very very certain this is an attack on Free Speech.
This is the most straightforward attack on free speech from state actors I’ve ever seen in my life and it’s not even close. https://t.co/uMjEZkIpat
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) September 17, 2025
But Hayes is a progressive, and his side has been calling for the government to regulate misinformation by going after social media networks and media outlets that push information they deem inaccurate/false, whether it is or isn’t.
Remember, the Biden administration established the Disinformation Governance Board at the Department of Homeland Security specifically to go after COVID “misinformation” (which was an incredibly nebulous category). Nina Jankowicz, who led that body before it was dismantled, was an advocate for regulating information and even called for the “prebunking” of “misinformation.”
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has likewise repeatedly called for regulating any platform that allows “misinformation” to be uttered. Even Hayes has erred dangerously close to calling for it. In 2020, he repeatedly urged stronger government oversight of social media to combat election misinformation, and he later supported things like the For the People Act, which included provisions for online platform transparency and regulation of political ads to curb “false claims.”
What Kimmel did was tell a straight lie. There is no publicly available evidence to suggest Robinson was MAGA. Everything prosecutors have released shows a man radicalized by leftist Internet communities, angry at his pro-Trump father, and angry at Charlie Kirk over his conservative views.
Spare Me the Outrage
I think Carr probably spoke out of turn and should have let things play out normally, but truthfully, it’s clear this would have happened with or without his comments. ABC didn’t pull Kimmel on a whim. Nexstar said they were preempting his show for the foreseeable future. If one of the biggest local media affiliate groups isn’t airing a show (that isn’t generating top ratings) because the host said something egregiously false and inflammatory, Kimmel’s days were numbered anyway.
I believe in the First Amendment and free speech. I think Carr flew too close to violating that with his comments, but I also think that the result would have been the same with or without his statement. Kimmel made a really inflammatory and false comment, and his show has been pulled because of it.
You can scream to High Heaven about the First Amendment all you want, my dear progressive friends, but you’ve been calling for this exact solution to misinformation for years.
