NEW REPORT: Kimmel Was About to Make Things Even Worse Before Suspension.
Before Jimmy Kimmel got “indefinitely preempted,” there was a report that he wasn’t going to apologize, and that he didn’t think he had done anything to apologize for when he implied that the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk was MAGA and mocked MAGA grief over Kirk’s death.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the Maga gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
That’s what he said on Monday.
On Tuesday, he said, “Many in MAGA-land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.” He then accused Vice President JD Vance of blaming the left without evidence, despite what the authorities had previously said about the alleged killer being on the left, including earlier on Tuesday. Then he claimed the right had more extremist violence and brought up Jan. 6.
So by Wednesday, Disney wanted to know how he would address the controversy he had created. According to the Wall Street Journal, Kimmel was about to make it worse. He planned to address it by blaming MAGA, saying that his words were being “purposely twisted” by them.
And as a result: Jimmy Kimmel Live! Replaced by Celebrity Family Feud After Being Pulled by ABC amid Host’s Comments About Charlie Kirk.
The old line about Colin Kaepernick was that if you’re going to do Muhammad Ali-style political stunts, you better have Ali-level talent as an athlete to get get away with them. The current crop of late night hosts think they’re successors to Johnny Carson, while getting a much smaller audience to turn on the TV at 11:30 pm: Jimmy Kimmel’s ratings were plummeting before ABC suspended him for Charlie Kirk comments.
Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was bleeding viewers before Disney-owned ABC pulled the plug and suspended him for his comments on Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Nielsen data showed sharp summer declines and a year-long slide that leaves him trailing late-night rivals such as Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld and CBS star Stephen Colbert.
According to monthly Nielsen figures, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” dropped to just 1.1 million total viewers in August 2025, down 43% from January’s 1.95 million. His August household rating of 0.35 marked the weakest showing of the year.
In sharp contrast, as the New Yorker noted last year, “At its peak, [the Johnny Carson-era Tonight Show] was regularly watched by seventeen million people.” Keep the disparity between Carson’s numbers and those of Kimmel and Colbert in mind when assessing the meltdowns of their defenders.
UPDATE: Scott Jennings Schools Abby Phillip and Other Clueless Dems on How the Television Broadcasting Biz Works.
