After the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) made the decision to put Jimmy Kimmel Live! on an extended hiatus, the program was removed from the schedule for Wednesday evenings.
Following the killing of political analyst Charlie Kirk, who had right-wing views, Jimmy Kimmel, who is 57 years old and hosts the late-night talk show that airs on Disney’s ABC, made statements on the situation. As a result of these statements, a spokeswoman for Disney’s ABC stated that the program will be placed on an extended hiatus beginning on September 17.
On September 10, Kirk, who was thirty-one years old, was speaking at an event on the campus of Utah Valley University when he was shot and killed.
During his program on Monday, Kimmel made a statement about the killing of Kirk, stating, “The MAGA Gang (is) frantically trying to describe this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to earn political points from it. There was sorrow in addition to the accusations of blame that were made.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! typically occupies the 11:35 p.m. time slot on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but Variety reports that ABC has decided to run repeat episodes of Celebrity Family Feud during that hour instead. This information was sent to the owners of ABC’s more than 150 affiliate station partners in a memorandum that was handed out to them by the network. According to the source, the memorandum from the affiliate board also made the observation that “formal guidance from Disney/ABC is forthcoming.”
In addition, Sinclair, which is the biggest group of ABC affiliates in the United States, made the announcement that it would be filling the time period that is typically reserved for the program on Fridays with a special that would commemorate Charlie Kirk on its ABC member stations. The program is being made available to all of the other ABC stations around the United States as well.
The business said in a press statement that was posted on its website that “Sinclair will not lift the suspension of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ on our stations until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability.” Sinclair is also requesting that Mr. Kimmel make a formal apology to the Kirk family in person. In addition to that, we would want to request that Mr. Kimmel make a significant personal contribution to both the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA.”
After dropping out of Harper College, which is located near Chicago, in 2012, Kirk went on to become one of the co-founders of Turning Point USA.
In the meanwhile, Nexstar Media, which is the biggest local broadcast and digital media firm in the United States, said that it “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.”
PEOPLE has reached out to ABC in order to get a statement. On September 17, People magazine attempted to reach out to representatives for Kimmel in order to get their feedback on the matter, but they did not receive a response.
After the news broke that Kimmel’s program was being taken off the air, many celebrities responded, including Ben Stiller, Sophia Bush, Don Lemon, Kathy Griffin, and Wanda Sykes.
Sykes, who is 61 years old and works as a comedian, posted a video on Instagram in which she revealed that she was scheduled to make an appearance on the program on Wednesday.
Let’s have a look at it now. He did not manage to bring a stop to the conflict in Ukraine or find a solution to the situation in Gaza throughout the course of his first week. However, he put a stop to freedom of expression during his first year in office. Hello, for those of you who engage in prayer, now is the time to do so. Sykes said the words, “I love you, Jimmy.”
Stiller, who is 59 years old, made the following statement on X in response to the announcement: “This isn’t right.”
