The recent suspension of Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, has left many people asking the question of whether or not our free speech is on the line.
Jimmy Kimmel’s Suspension: What happened?
On September 15th, comedian and late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel was suspended after comments he made regarding Charlie Kirk’s murder during his opening monologue. He said:
“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.”
Then, on September 17th, it was announced that ABC had suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s show indefinitely, after stations Nexstar and Sinclair had pulled his show from their channels. In the following days, many news outlets claimed it was due to pressure and threats from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr. Carr had stated earlier that what Jimmy said was the “sickest conduct possible.” After saying this, he went on to warn Jimmy Kimmel and send a message to other late-night shows by saying, “We can do this the easy way, or the hard way” on the Benny Show, a conservative podcast.
It was after these remarks that two of ABC’s biggest affiliate groups (Nexstar and Sinclair) decided to withdraw their production of Jimmy Kimmel’s show. A thing to know about Nexstar and Sinclair is that they are both trying to merge with different corporations. And for that merger, they need approval from the FCC Chair, who is Brendan Carr.
People, including Kimmel himself, have pointed out the irony of Carr’s statements. When Carr was the FCC Chair under the Biden administration, he posted many tweets stating “Political satire is one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech,” and “Free speech is not a threat to democracy— censorship is.”
After people found out that Jimmy Kimmel was suspended for his comments about Charlie Kirk, many were filled with anger and confusion, as punishing Kimmel for his comments was considered by many to be an infringement of the First Amendment. This led to people protesting outside of Disney’s and ABC’s buildings and celebrities posting online to protest against the suspension and advocate for freedom of speech. Other late-night hosts shared their thoughts and stood strong with Kimmel.
This news spread rapidly, and ABC’s parent company, Disney, received a lot of backlash, which led to some consumers canceling their Disney+ subscriptions and boycotting Disney.
When asked for his thoughts, President Trump said Kimmel was “fired because he had bad ratings” and added that Jimmy “is not a talented person”.
Almost a week later, on September 22nd, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel would no longer be suspended. This came after Disney and ABC were receiving widespread criticism for infringing on Kimmel’s First Amendment right and happened to follow after former late-night hosts and actors went online to advocate for Jimmy Kimmel.
Though this suspension was short, its impact was long-felt and significant as it opened a broader conversation about whether or not our free speech is truly protected. What do you think? Is our free speech on the line?
Works Cited:
Dallow, Lily. “What Jimmy Kimmel said about Charlie Kirk before ABC suspension.” KTLA, 21 September 2025, https://ktla.com/news/local-news/what-did-jimmy-kimmel-say-in-his-monologues-about-charlie-kirk/. Accessed 10 October 2025.
“Jimmy Kimmel taken off air over Charlie Kirk comments.” BBC, 18 September 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c203n52x1y9o. Accessed 15 October 2025.
Montanaro, Domenico. “Kimmel suspension over Kirk comments raises free speech questions.” NPR, 18 September 2025, https://www.npr.org/2025/09/18/nx-s1-5545671/kimmel-suspension-charlie-kirk-death-free-speech-censorship. Accessed 11 October 2025.
