The ABC television network said the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show was to be taken off the air “indefinitely” after the host made controversial comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel had suggested that Tyler Robinson, the man arrested for allegedly shooting and killing Kirk, had actually been a supporter of President Donald Trump and the “Make America Great Again” movement.
‘We have made the difficult decision to pre-empt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.’
“The MAGA gang 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,” Kimmel said during the opening monologue of the show on Monday.
“In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving,” he added.
However, most of the evidence that has been released from the case has supported the suspicion that Robinson was motivated to allegedly kill Kirk over the activist’s opposition to the LGBTQ agenda. Robinson had been in a romantic relationship with a trans-identifying male.
On Wednesday, Nexstar Media Group announced that the show would be pre-empted indefinitely from the ABC stations they own.
“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,” reads a statement from the company.
Soon afterward, ABC said they had pulled the show from all stations indefinitely.
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Nexstar broadcasting division president Andrew Alford called the comments “offensive and insensitive” in a statement explaining the company’s decision.
“Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to pre-empt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue,” he added.
Kimmel had also claimed in August that the president was behind the end of “The Late Show” that was hosted by Stephen Colbert, a frequent Trump critic.
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