Jimmy Kimmel Live suspended, then reinstated, over Charlie Kirk remarks

In a monologue on 15 September 2025, Jimmy Kimmel commented on the killing of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and on the response of Trump supporters to it, including a remark about how the president was publicly mourning Kirk.

Preemption and suspension

On 17 September, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr discussed the monologue on a podcast hosted by Benny Johnson, saying: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” The same day, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair each announced that their ABC affiliates would preempt the show, and ABC announced an indefinite suspension.

The Commission itself took no formal action against ABC or Disney over the monologue; Carr had spoken on his own rather than through a Commission proceeding. Carr said afterwards that Kimmel had not been suspended because of government action.

Return

Disney announced on 22 September that the show would return, describing the remarks as “ill-timed and thus insensitive,” and it aired on 23 September to the largest regular-episode audience in its history. Nexstar and Sinclair stations resumed carriage on 26 September. On 8 December 2025 ABC announced a one-year contract extension, keeping the show on the air through the 2026-27 season; most of Kimmel’s previous renewals had been multiyear.

Reactions and follow-on

Trump welcomed the suspension and suggested other networks cancel their late-night programs. Writers’ and performers’ unions objected to it as pressure on editorial content. Eleven senators wrote to Carr on 18 September. Carr’s handling of the episode was raised in questioning at FCC oversight hearings held by the Senate Commerce Committee on 17 December 2025 and by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology on 14 January 2026; both were general oversight hearings rather than proceedings convened on the suspension itself. Republican senators including Ted Cruz and Rand Paul also criticized Carr’s remarks.

Unlike digital platforms, broadcast licensees such as ABC affiliates sit within a federal regulatory relationship with the FCC. The sequence of events is documented; the extent to which the FCC chairman’s comments caused Disney’s decision is contested, and Disney did not attribute the suspension to them.