FCC chair explains Jimmy Kimmel show suspension after comments on Charlie Kirk

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr joined Sean Hannity on Fox News Wednesday night to explain why Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night TV show was abruptly suspended following backlash over his controversial comments about the assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk.

Carr stressed that broadcast networks like ABC operate with a license that has a “unique obligation to operate in the public interest,” unlike cable channels such as CNN. 

“Broadcasters are different than any other form of communication,” Carr said, pointing to affiliate groups like Nexstar and Sinclair that announced they would no longer carry “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” He argued that local stations acted appropriately, saying they were “standing up to serve the interests of their community.”

“Over the years, the FCC walked away from enforcing that public interest obligation,” Carr said. “I don’t think we’re better off as a country for it.”

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Hannity pressed Carr on whether broadcasters had been abusing their licenses by advancing partisan agendas.

“They went from going for applause, from laugh lines to applause lines. They went from being court jesters that would make fun of everybody in power to being court clerics and enforcing a very narrow political ideology,” Carr asserted.

Carr pointed to what he described as years of “narrow, partisan circus” programming and said the FCC was working to reinvigorate enforcement of the public interest obligation. He called Nexstar and Sinclair’s decisions “unprecedented.”

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“This action today by Nexstar and Sinclair, frankly, it is unprecedented,” said Carr. “I can’t imagine another time when we’ve had local broadcasters tell what we call a national programmer like Disney that your content no longer meets the needs and the values of our community.”

The controversy erupted after Kimmel suggested that conservatives were trying to deflect responsibility from “the MAGA gang” in connection with the arrest of 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, the suspect accused in Charlie Kirk’s killing.

Nexstar, which is awaiting FCC approval on a multibillion-dollar acquisition, announced it would preempt Kimmel’s show “for the foreseeable future.” Hours later, Disney confirmed ABC would suspend the program indefinitely.

The ACLU blasted the move, accusing the Trump administration of using federal pressure to silence critics. “This is beyond McCarthyism,” said Christopher Anders, the group’s democracy and technology director, warning of a “grave threat to our First Amendment freedoms.”

Carr told Hannity the shift reflected market realities, arguing that late-night shows had alienated broad audiences by prioritizing politics over comedy. 

“You can’t avoid ratings,” Carr said. “At the end of the day, the market is going to be undefeated.”

Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.