Key Takeaways
- Suspension: Jimmy Kimmel has been suspended indefinitely from his show.
- Controversial Remarks: Kimmel’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s shooting sparked significant backlash.
- Political Critique: He criticized Donald Trump and the “MAGA gang” for their response to the incident.
- Future Uncertain: It remains unclear if Kimmel will return to ABC after this controversy.
Jimmy Kimmel has been pulled off the air indefinitely after his comments about Charlie Kirk’s shooting sparked outrage among conservatives and Donald Trump supporters. An ABC spokesperson said, “Jimmy Kimmel Live will be preempted indefinitely,” without giving any further explanation.
Here’s what Jimmy Kimmel said that led to this huge controversy.
In what is an extremely unusual circumstance for a talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was pulled off the air hours before its planned airing. This is because of some comments that Kimmel made about Charlie Kirk’s shooting on Monday night.
In Monday’s opening monologue, Kimmel accused Donald Trump and the “MAGA gang” of trying to “score political points” from Kirk’s death. He emphasized how they blamed the left even before anything was established about the murder.
“The MAGA gang (is) 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,” Kimmel had said on the show, “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”
Kimmel has always been a vocal critic of Donald Trump. In this instance, too, he criticized the way the President reacted to the death. Kimmel added, “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
These remarks angered the conservatives enough and ultimately led to Trump pushing back. This led to the suspension of Kimmel’s show indefinitely. It is unclear if Kimmel will ever return to ABC after this. Sources say that he has other plans lined up and would not return to the network ever.
This suspension and controversy have also raised bigger questions about freedom of speech in America.
Few can predict what will go down in the coming years for talk show hosts. But it seems that after Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, talk show hosts will have to measure their words carefully if they need to stay on air.
