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Disney's ABC suspended 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' indefinitely after FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened license revocations over Kimmel's on-air Charlie Kirk remarks.
- ABC suspended 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' Sept. 17, 2025, after FCC Chair Carr threatened license revocations over Kimmel's Charlie Kirk comments.
- Nexstar Media Group, operator of 200+ U.S. stations and seeking FCC nod for a $6.2B Tegna deal, immediately preempted the program.
- Kimmel returned to air Sept. 23, five days after the suspension, calling the episode unlawful government interference with broadcast speech.
Lead
Disney's ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! from its schedule "indefinitely" on September 17, 2025 — within hours of Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr publicly threatening to revoke broadcast licenses over host Jimmy Kimmel's televised commentary about the killing of conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.What Happened
During his monologue, Kimmel addressed the political fallout surrounding Kirk's death, accusing supporters of President Donald Trump of attempting to "score political points" from the incident and joking that Trump mourned Kirk's killing "like a 4-year-old mourns the death of a goldfish." The remarks drew immediate condemnation from conservative commentators and Republican officials.
Within 48 hours, FCC Chair Carr appeared on conservative media platform The Benny Johnson Show and branded Kimmel's comments "some of the sickest conduct possible." Carr warned that the FCC had regulatory "avenues" available — including potential revocation of broadcast licenses held by ABC affiliates — and issued an explicit ultimatum: "We can do this the easy way or the hard way."
Affiliate Pullback
Hours after Carr's public statements, Nexstar Media Group — which operates more than 200 television stations nationwide and has a $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna pending FCC approval — announced its ABC-affiliated stations would preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future. Sinclair Broadcast Group took identical action, creating an effective nationwide blackout of the late-night program.
Disney, ABC's parent company, formalized the suspension without disclosing a return date.First Amendment Backlash
The pull triggered swift condemnation from constitutional scholars, entertainment industry unions, and media advocacy organizations. Critics characterized Carr's conduct as government jawboning — the use of regulatory leverage to coerce a licensed broadcaster into silencing a specific voice — a practice courts have held can violate the First Amendment even without formal agency action.
President Trump praised the suspension. Hollywood unions and civil liberties organizations condemned Disney's decision as a precedent-setting capitulation. The episode intensified scrutiny of the FCC's informal power over broadcast content, particularly given Nexstar's pending regulatory approval and the leverage that licensing authority provides.
Kimmel Returns
On September 22, 2025, Disney and ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would resume the following evening. Jimmy Kimmel returned to the El Capitan Theatre studio in Hollywood on September 23, telling his audience: "Our government cannot be allowed to control what we do and do not say on television." He acknowledged his original remarks were not intended to minimize Kirk's death while directly accusing the Trump administration of deploying the FCC as a silencing instrument.
Outlook
The five-day suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! demonstrated the informal leverage the FCC exercises over broadcast networks through regulatory threat alone, without initiating a single formal proceeding. Constitutional challenges and congressional scrutiny of Carr's conduct persisted following the show's return, and major media companies entered a period of heightened sensitivity around politically charged content in licensed broadcast slots. The episode marked a defining flashpoint in the broader tension between the Trump administration and legacy broadcast television.
