Jimmy Kimmel taken off air over Charlie Kirk comments

ABC has pulled late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off air indefinitely over comments he made about the shooting of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.

“Jimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely,” a spokesperson for the Disney-owned network said in a statement to the BBC.

On Monday night’s monologue, Kimmel said the “MAGA gang” was trying to score political points off Kirk’s murder.

On Tuesday, a 22-year-old suspect appeared in court charged with aggravated murder over last Wednesday’s shooting of the 31-year-old conservative influencer.

The announcement came after one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the US, Nexstar Media, said it would not air Jimmy Kimmel Live! “for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show”.

Nexstar said on Wednesday that the comedian’s remarks about Kirk “are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse”.

“[W]e do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division.

“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 preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”

Representatives for Kimmel did not immediately respond to the BBC’s requests for comment.

Kimmel said in his Monday night monologue: “The Maga Gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”

The late-night host, who has frequently been in the crosshairs of US President Donald Trump, also criticised flags being flown at half staff in honour of Kirk, and mocked Trump’s reaction to the shooting.

He spliced a clip of the president speaking with reporters about his reaction to Kirk’s death and redirecting to talk about a ballroom being built at the White House.

“He’s at the fourth stage of grief,” Kimmel said. “Construction. It’s demolition, construction.

“This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a gold fish.”