ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel Live

[michael hagerty]

Here's another source on the events from Tuesday, the discussions between ABC and Kimmel, and more:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/18/entertainment/abc-jimmy-kimmel-what-comes-next

More detailed than the Deadline piece and with the same Disney desire to find a way to bring Jimmy back.

 

[TheBigA]

FCC's Anna Gomez basically says the same thing as Kimmel:

In a statement in response to Kimmel’s suspension, Gomez said, “We cannot allow an inexcusable act of political violence to be twisted into a justification for government censorship and control.” She called ABC’s decision to take Kimmel off the air a “cowardly corporate capitulation” that “has put the foundation of the First Amendment in danger.”

 

[davideduardo]

More detailed than the Deadline piece and with the same Disney desire to find a way to bring Jimmy back.

But none with a quotable Disney source.

 

[michael hagerty]

But none with a quotable Disney source.

Nor any with a quotable Disney source saying they've decided to cancel.

 

[davideduardo]

But you still have no actual proof that Jimmy Kimmel Live, specifically was losing ABC money. None of us do. You may think that. But---as you yourself have said in correcting posters on this board many times over the years---don't turn an opinion you can't back up into a blanket statement of fact.

I have information which I can only refer to but not quote that comes from either copyrighted data sources or internal research I was in old with at another network that indicate tat Kimmel’s show was second out of the Big 3 in losses.

In general, those nets have profitability issues with morning news-talk shows and even with the Sunday news analysis shows.

 

[davideduardo]

Nor any with a quotable Disney source saying they've decided to cancel.

As I said, that is my experience based assumption. The language used is clearly intended to be less-than-definitive which leave doors open while calming the waters right now.

 

[davideduardo]

FCC's Anna Gomez basically says the same thing as Kimmel:

What Kimmel said was, and I paraphrase, that MAGA folks were furiously trying to say that he (the shooter, obviously) was not a MAGA militant. The fact is tha at no point was the shooter to be considered as such.

 

[michael hagerty]

What Kimmel said was, and I paraphrase, that MAGA folks were furiously trying to say that he (the shooter, obviously) was not a MAGA militant. The fact is tha at no point was the shooter to be considered as such.

Goddamn it, David. We've had the quote in full several times.

“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.”

Unless you're suggesting that all MAGA are militants, then no, that's not what Kimmel said.

Enough. I'm going to bed. I wish you'd taken my advice about credibility and respect.

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

Goddamn it, David. We've had the quote in full several times.



Unless you're suggesting that all MAGA are militants, then no, that's not what Kimmel said.

Enough. I'm going to bed. I wish you'd taken my advice about credibility and respect.

If Jimmy Kimmel were doing a hard news broadcast, ( like ABC NIghtly News w/ David Muir), where journalists are announcing verifiable facts, then the network might have grounds to question whether Kimmel’s statement is factual.

But Kimmel is not broadcasting “hard news”. He’s doing stand up comedy commentary. The alleged shooter is a white American citizen, Christian, from a Republican family, in a red state, registered to vote as “unaffiliated “ (not Democrat) who attended the conservative university. So Kimmel’s joke is that there is not very much evidence that he’s a so-called “leftist”.
So how can a stand up comic be suspended for “lying”? How does the idea of “lying” relate to a comedy routine of opinions, aired as late night entertainment? —D.

 

[Loverofradio]

will they also have to pay to delay whatever replaces Colbert?

Don’t know yet since his cancellation is next year.

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

Goddamn it, David. We've had the quote in full several times.



Unless you're suggesting that all MAGA are militants, then no, that's not what Kimmel said.

Enough. I'm going to bed. I wish you'd taken my advice about credibility and respect.

If Jimmy Kimmel were doing a hard news broadcast, ( like ABC NIghtly News w/ David Muir), where journalists are announcing verifiable facts, then the network might have grounds to question whether Kimmel’s statement is factual.

But Kimmel is not broadcasting “hard news”. He’s doing stand up comedy commentary. The alleged shooter is a white American citizen, Christian, from a Republican family, in a red state, registered to vote as “unaffiliated “ (not Democrat) who attended the conservative university. So Kimmel’s joke is that there is not very much evidence that he’s a so-called “leftist”.
So how can a stand up comic be suspended for “lying”? How does the idea of “lying” relate to a comedy routine of opinions, aired as late night entertainment? —D

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

If Jimmy Kimmel were doing a hard news broadcast, ( like ABC NIghtly News w/ David Muir), where journalists are announcing verifiable facts, then the network might have grounds to question whether Kimmel’s statement is factual.

But Kimmel is not broadcasting “hard news”. He’s doing stand up comedy commentary. The alleged shooter is a white American citizen, Christian, from a Republican family, in a red state, registered to vote as “unaffiliated “ (not Democrat) who attended the conservative university. So Kimmel’s joke is that there is not very much evidence that he’s a so-called “leftist”.
So how can a stand up comic be suspended for “lying”? How does the idea of “lying” relate to a comedy routine of opinions, aired as late night entertainment? —D

P.S. I don’t mean to be disrespectful to David or anyone else, since I greatly admire all the expertise and knowledge of everyone here. But I am worried that maybe all nighttime comedy/ talk shows that are remaining ( Jon Stewart, Seth Myers, Jimmy Fallon etc. ) would be targeted, while conservative shows (The 5) are given free rein. It looks like a double standard.JMO.

 

[Miss Tuned]

All these shows are junk. On one side, you've got some guy saying "Trump bad!" and the audience whoops because "he said our thing!". On the other side, you've got some guy saying "liberals bad!" and some other people cheering because he said their thing. The performing monkeys keep saying their lines and nobody learns anything.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

But I am worried that maybe all nighttime comedy/ talk shows that are remaining ( Jon Stewart, Seth Myers, Jimmy Fallon etc. ) would be targeted, while conservative shows (The 5) are given free rein. It looks like a double standard.JMO.

Trump has already targeted Fallon and Myers.

It doesn’t look like a double standard. It is one.

 

[CTListener]

Strike that. Principles, no.

Only Murders in the Building is one of my favorite shows. It’s on Hulu. The new season just started and I didn’t hesitate for a second to tell Disney to go f*** itself.

Ain’t a TV show I’ve ever watched that I liked more than the right to free speech.

Whew! Since WMUR in Manchester, NH, the de facto ABC affiliate serving eastern Vermont, is owned by Hearst, I can continue to watch its evening news, its football, and even its "9-1-1" clones (if I were somehow to lose my mind).

 

[b-turner]

Here's the thing: Jimmy Kimmel said what he said. Everyone points out he is a comedian (I agree). Now, my question is : What was the punch line? If no punch line, why was this even a part of the show?

 

[yeoldeschool]

Translation, because apparently we need it:

They're not in the mood to piss Trump off at the moment and are hoping they can figure something out. This buys them time.

I don't believe this has ever been done before in the television industry, but there's a first time for everything, especially when necessity becomes the mother of invention:

Can a show exist simultaneously in network runs and in front-end syndication? (Front-end syndication is the kind Star Trek: The Next Generation ran all its new episodes in.)

My thinking is that in any market whose ABC affiliate blackballed the show, all the other stations -- regardless of their affiliation or independence status -- would get to bid on the right to carry new episodes through a standard front-end syndication contract. The barter syndication model would be employed, in particular, so that all national ads booked on ABC could and would also appear in the syndicated versions' satellite feeds as built-ins. The same number of minutes alloted to ABC affiliates for local ads during its network feeds of Kimmel would, in turn, be present in each syndication feed as local ad insertion blacks.

Voila? Or nay?

 

[CTListener]

I don't believe this has ever been done before in the television industry, but there's a first time for everything, especially when necessity becomes the mother of invention:

Can a show exist simultaneously in network runs and in front-end syndication? (Front-end syndication is the kind Star Trek: The Next Generation ran all its new episodes in.)

My thinking is that in any market whose ABC affiliate blackballed the show, all the other stations -- regardless of their affiliation or independence status -- would get to bid on the right to carry new episodes through a standard front-end syndication contract. The barter syndication model would be employed, in particular, so that all national ads booked on ABC could and would also appear in the syndicated versions' satellite feeds as built-ins. The same number of minutes alloted to ABC affiliates for local ads during its network feeds of Kimmel would, in turn, be present in each syndication feed as local ad insertion blacks.

Voila? Or nay?

Any experts on contract law here?

 

[michael hagerty]

I have freelance auto review assignments on deadline today (edit: and will be in Alameda all day tomorrow working with @BossRadioDJ on the California Historical Radio Society's audio archive cataloging and eventual digitization project) and frankly, I'm tired of the bad-faith arguments and the rhetorical shell games. It's up to the rest of you.

Just as a warning before you engage with any apologists, THIS was on FOX and Friends this morning, just so you have an idea of their information ecosystem:





This was Jesse Watters last night:

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

I don't believe this has ever been done before in the television industry, but there's a first time for everything, especially when necessity becomes the mother of invention:

Can a show exist simultaneously in network runs and in front-end syndication? (Front-end syndication is the kind Star Trek: The Next Generation ran all its new episodes in.)

My thinking is that in any market whose ABC affiliate blackballed the show, all the other stations -- regardless of their affiliation or independence status -- would get to bid on the right to carry new episodes through a standard front-end syndication contract. The barter syndication model would be employed, in particular, so that all national ads booked on ABC could and would also appear in the syndicated versions' satellite feeds as built-ins. The same number of minutes alloted to ABC affiliates for local ads during its network feeds of Kimmel would, in turn, be present in each syndication feed as local ad insertion blacks.

Voila? Or nay?

In many of the markets in question, the companies in question have a near stranglehold on the local television market. Between those that already have network obligations even when not owned by those companies and the fact that those companies would obviously not add it to their other lineups, any impact becomes minimal. If the show winds up buried on little-viewed outposts, the national advertisers aren’t going to pay for reach they’re not getting, so there’s still a financial hit.

And then there’s the figurative elephant in the room: this is about the FCC. They made the threat. Putting him back on does not remove that threat. That’s the issue.