Jimmy Kimmel's late-night television show has been taken off the air "indefinitely" after the host was criticised for comments about the motives behind the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, US network ABC said on Wednesday.

The decision to suspend one of the United States' most popular and influential late-night shows comes as President Donald Trump has widened his legal attacks on media organisations that he accuses of bias against him.

It was immediately welcomed by Trump, who hailed it as "Great News for America.”

"Jimmy Kimmel Live will be preempted indefinitely," an ABC spokesperson told AFP, using a television industry term for when a show is replaced or removed from the schedule.

Kirk, a close Trump ally, was shot dead last week while speaking on a Utah university campus. Authorities said 22-year-old Tyler Robinson used a rifle to shoot Kirk. He has been charged with murder.

On Monday, Kimmel spoke about the shooting in his popular late-night show's monologue.

"We had some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and with everything they can to score political points from it," said Kimmel, referring to the president's "Make America Great Again" movement.

The head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr, then openly threatened the licence of ABC affiliates who broadcast Kimmel's show, a move Democratic lawmakers and other critics quickly decried as an abuse of government power against constitutionally protected free speech.

The White House this week said it would be pursuing an alleged left-wing "domestic terror movement" in the wake of Kirk's killing, prompting alarm that such a campaign could be used to silence political dissent.

ABC's decision came shortly after Nexstar – one of the country's biggest owners of ABC affiliate stations – said it would not broadcast "Jimmy Kimmel Live" for "the foreseeable future."

In a statement, Nexstar broadcasting president Andrew Alford said the company "strongly objects" to Kimmel's comments.

"Mr Kimmel's comments about the death of Mr Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located," he said.

"Continuing to give Mr Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time."

Democratic lawmakers quickly cried foul.

"President Trump and FCC Chair Carr made it clear: fall in line or be silenced," Senator Ben Ray Lujan posted on X.

Trump, who has long fumed about the late-night hosts who mercilessly mock him, was ebullient.

"Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done," he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Rival broadcaster CBS said in July it was cancelling "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," days after the comedian blasted parent company Paramount's US$16 million settlement with Trump as "a big fat bribe."

Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, both on NBC, are now the only remaining major network late-night hosts in a genre that once ruled the roost.

The decision to suspend "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" followed the startling threat by Carr, a fierce Trump partisan.

"I think it's past time these (affiliates) themselves push back on Comcast and this and say, 'Listen, we're not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we're running the possibility of license revocation from the FCC'," he told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson.

Carr, whose role is to oversee broadcasters, seemingly confused Comcast, which owns NBC Universal, with Disney, which owns ABC. (AFP)
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Last updated: 2025-09-18 HKT 09:55