On Sept. 17, ABC announced it was removing Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show from the air indefinitely, after comments the comedian made about conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Two nights earlier, Kimmel said that the “MAGA gang,” a reference to President Donald Trump’s supporters, tried to cast the person “who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
Suspect Tyler Robinson was charged the day after Kimmel’s comments. Robinson was an unaffiliated inactive voter who prosecutors said described Kirk as someone who “spreads too much hate.” Critics derided Kimmel’s ouster as a sign that the broadcast network caved to Trump administration pressures.
Fox News host Sean Hannity said he saw things differently, calling claims of “conservative censorship” false.
“I can’t find a single, prominent conservative voice in the country that even remotely wanted or hoped or was pushing to get Jimmy Kimmel taken off the air,” Hannity said Sept. 17 on his show “Hannity.” “Nobody — it just was simple. People changed the channel. They didn’t watch him. Not one person can I think of. Maybe there’s one, but I can’t think of him.”
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Fox News did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment.
Has a conservative called for Kimmel to be taken off the air?
At least one major conservative advocated for the demise of Kimmel’s show in recent months: Trump. And he did so repeatedly.
In July, after CBS announced it would be canceling comedian Stephen Colbert’s late-night show as of May 2026, Trump said on Truth Social that he hoped Kimmel’s show would meet the same fate.
“The word is, and it’s a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone,” he wrote July 22. “These are people with absolutely NO TALENT, who were paid Millions of Dollars for, in all cases, destroying what used to be GREAT Television. It’s really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it!”
On July 29, Trump argued that CBS canceled Cobert’s show due to his “lack of talent.”
“Everybody is saying that I was solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert from CBS, Late Night. That is not true!” Trump wrote. “And it was only going to get WORSE! Next up will be an even less talented Jimmy Kimmel, and then, a weak, and very insecure, Jimmy Fallon. The only real question is, who will go first?”
On Aug. 6, Trump sounded his prediction again, saying at a White House event that Fallon and Kimmel were “next.” “They’re going to be going,” he said. “I hear they’re going to be going.”
When the news about Kimmel’s show reached Trump after midnight in the U.K., he celebrated.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” he wrote. “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.”
Trump also said Sept. 18 that federal regulators should revoke the licenses of broadcasters who “give me only bad publicity.”
Did others push for Kimmel to be fired?
Yes — at least according to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, who said during a podcast appearance that Kimmel’s suspension might be warranted.
“There’s calls for Kimmel to be fired,” Carr said Sept. 17 on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast. “You could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this.”
Carr, who Trump appointed as chair, formerly served as the commission’s senior Republican.
RELATED: Key question in the Jimmy Kimmel case: Does the FCC have the power to regulate speech?
Carr made the remarks in a video that Johnson — who has 5.73 million YouTube subscribers and 3.9 million followers on X — titled “Jimmy Kimmel LIES About Charlie Kirk Killer, Blames Charlie For His Murder!? Disney Must Fire Kimmel.” (Disney is ABC’s parent company.)
Carr also said the government could take action against ABC. “They have a license granted by us at the FCC that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest,” Carr told Johnson. “…I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct to take actions, frankly on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
We contacted the FCC to ask who else called for Kimmel to be fired and received no response.
What’s behind ABC’s decision to take Kimmel’s show off the air?
ABC said Sept. 17 that Kimmel’s show was “preempted indefinitely” following backlash to his remarks.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with 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. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”
Kimmel then showed a clip of Trump answering a reporter’s question about how he was holding up after Kirk’s murder. “I think very good,” Trump answered, before directing journalists’ attention to the White House renovation underway nearby.
Before ABC’s announcement, two companies that own a range of ABC affiliates — Nexstar and Sinclair — said they would be preempting Kimmel’s show. (Preempting a show means not running it in an affiliate’s market.)
Nexstar announced in August that it intended, subject to regulatory approvals, to acquire all outstanding shares of Tegna for $6.2 billion. The transaction is expected to close by the second half of 2026 and will be reviewed by the FCC. Separately, Nexstar and Sinclair are also asking the FCC to repeal a rule that limits any broadcasting company from reaching more than 39% of U.S. households.
Our ruling
Hannity said he found no “prominent conservative voice in the country that even remotely wanted or hoped or was pushing to get Jimmy Kimmel taken off the air.”
Trump, the biggest conservative voice in the country, said in July that Kimmel was “next up” on the list of late night show hosts who would be fired. Trump also said of Kimmel’s and Fallon’s then-hypothetical ouster from late night shows: “It’s really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it!”
Other prominent conservative voices also weighed in. Johnson advocated for Kimmel to be fired. And Carr said Kimmel’s comments about Kirk’s assassination drew calls for — and created a possible path for — his suspension or firing.
We rate this claim False.
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird, Staff Writer Samantha Putterman and Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this report.
RELATED: President Trump said he ‘brought back free speech.’ His first 100 days tell a different story.
