Recently, ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show off the air, announcing an indefinite suspension after he made remarks about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
In his monologue, Kimmel said: “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.”
According to insiders, senior TV executives backed Kimmel at first but quickly flipped. Hours before ABC pulled the show, they were in meetings, nervous, and as Rolling Stone put it, “p—ing themselves.” The reason was not what Kimmel said. The reason was fear of Donald Trump.
At the start, ABC, Disney, and their affiliates stood behind him. Sources say they even agreed he had not crossed any line. But pressure came fast. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, Trump’s hand-picked regulator, went on conservative YouTuber Benny Johnson’s show and issued a threat.
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“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “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.”
After that, Nexstar acted. The company owns many ABC affiliates across the U.S. Its broadcast president, Andrew Alford, called Kimmel’s comments “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse.”
Nexstar added, “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.”
The timing was no accident. Nexstar is waiting on the FCC to approve a $6.2 billion merger with Tegna. That detail says a lot. When business is on the line, standing up to Trump was never going to happen.
And Trump was quick to celebrate. On Truth Social, he wrote: “Great News for America.” He added: “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.” He also went after two more late-night hosts: “That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT.”
Other MAGA voices joined in. The Official White House Rapid Response wrote on X: “They’re doing their viewers a favor. Jimmy is a sick freak!” Benny Johnson, who hosted Carr’s interview, bragged: “We did it for you, Charlie. And we’re just getting started…”
This is not even the first time Trump got his way with networks. Last December, ABC paid him $16 million in a defamation case over George Stephanopoulos.
Then in July, Paramount paid him the same amount in a separate case over editing a Kamala Harris interview. And right after that settlement, the FCC gave approval to a merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
