© Jack Gruber-USA TODAY
We’re beginning to learn more about the Jimmy Kimmel situation at ABC. Earlier this week, Kimmel went viral on social media after making comments about Charlie Kirk’s killer before mocking President Trump during his opening monologue.
“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,
“In between the finger-pointing, there was, uh, grieving on Friday − the White House flew the flags at half-staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this.”
“Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction. Demolition, construction. This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend; this is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK? And it didn’t just happen once.”
These are the comments that led to Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air.
“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, in between the… pic.twitter.com/orTluWTRyD
— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) September 18, 2025
On Wednesday, Disney/ABC decided to suspend Kimmel after Nexstar and Sinclair, two big owners of ABC-affiliated stations, put pressure on the network to punish the comedian.
The Hollywood Reporter is now reporting that Disney execs went to check in on Kimmel before his show on Wednesday to see how he was going to react to the backlash from his comments, and were not satisfied with how he planned to handle the matter on air.
Inside of ABC, “multiple conversations” with Kimmel were had at the “executive level,” the first person says, though the talks had not yet reached Bob Iger or TV head Dana Walden. The execs wanted to know: How was Kimmel going to address the situation on Wednesday night’s show? The answer was not satisfactory to management, sources say.
A source at Jimmy Kimmel Live! counters to THR that Kimmel’s planned on-air address was not “making it worse,” but that he simply “wasn’t kowtowing” to the outrage.
Kimmel was “defending what he said [as] being grossly mischaracterized by a certain group of people,” the show source says.
THR reported on Wednesday that Kimmel did not plan to apologize for his comments, but did plan to address the situation on-air.
According to THR, Disney execs want to bring Kimmel back, but are unsure how willing he is to cool things down.
Disney is still trying to find a path back to Jimmy Kimmel Live!, according to the source. At the top, executives are hopeful, but note that the future is up to Kimmel’s willingness to participate in the cooling-off process.
Of course, the future of Jimmy Kimmel Live! is also at least sort of up to the ABC affiliates. The source could not say how many affiliates would have to be on board for ABC to continue business with Jimmy Kimmel Live!