ABC has suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future after host Jimmy Kimmel made inflammatory remarks regarding the death of Charlie Kirk, the network said Wednesday. The decision ends a 22-year run on air for the late-night program, which has been a fixture on ABC since its rise in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
ABC said the show would be removed from the network for the foreseeable future, and Deadline reported that staffers were seen leaving the Los Angeles studio as the decision took effect. Kimmel had been scheduled to address the remarks on Wednesday night, according to Deadline.
The suspension adds to a long record of controversy surrounding Kimmel. Critics have pointed to material from his earlier program The Man Show, which he co-hosted with Adam Carolla in the early 2000s, as emblematic of a crude, sexually charged style. Descriptions of the show include segments featuring a dance troupe and sketches that mocked women or used provocative, sexually explicit humor. Proponents have argued the material was satire intended to lampoon boorish male behavior, while opponents have argued it reinforced misogynistic stereotypes.
Kimmel has acknowledged that some of the material from that era was problematic. In a 2017 interview with Vulture, he described his on-air behavior as a joke and said he intended to lampoon loutish male conduct. He later said he cringes when looking back at the older clips and that The Man Show reflected a particular time in comedy. He has also defended his later work as a host and commentator who aimed to critique power and politics, rather than to promote any agenda.
Beyond The Man Show, past clips from Kimmel's career have included other controversial moments. In a 2009 interview with Megan Fox, he made sexual jokes about Fox that she later described as uncomfortable; in a 2018 segment, he mocked First Lady Melania Trump’s accent, an act that drew criticism and prompted apologies after a public backlash. The network and Kimmel alike have faced questions about accountability for past content that resurfaced in light of the suspension.
The episode also intersects with politics. Kimmel has frequently sparred with then-President Donald Trump on air, including coverage of gun control after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and an emotional monologue about Obamacare in 2017. A Rolling Stone report in 2023 said the White House approached ABC’s parent company to censure remarks about Trump, and President Trump publicly celebrated the show's pull on social media.
The staff exodus and the abrupt end to the show’s run raise questions about the future of the long-running late-night franchise on ABC. The company has not announced a timeline for resuming the program, and it is unclear when or if new leadership for the show will be named. The broader entertainment industry continues to reassess legacy humor and the responsibility of creators to address past content in light of contemporary standards.