Barack Obama Responds To Jimmy Kimmel Live! Preemption, Calls It A 'New And Dangerous' Escalation Of Cancel Culture
Former president Barack Obama is speaking out against ABC's decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air in the wake of Federal Communications Commission threats related to Kimmel's comments about Charlie Kirk's assassination.
"After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn't like," Obama wrote on X.
On Wednesday, a network spokesperson for ABC revealed that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be "preempted indefinitely" after Nexstar — which owns 33 ABC affiliates nationwide, including stations in Nashville, New Orleans and other, smaller markets — decided not to air the show in light of Kimmel's comments. (TVLine has reached out to Kimmel for comment.)
"Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets," Nexstar said in a statement.
Kimmel spoke about Kirk's murder in his monologue on Monday's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, implying that the shooter was actually affiliated with right-wing causes: "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." FCC chairman Brendan Carr quickly took issue with his comments, threatening to penalize the stations airing Kimmel's show if they don't "change conduct and take action."
President Trump shared his own statement Wednesday on Truth Social, calling the preemption "great news for America."
"The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED," Trump wrote. "Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that's possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT."