Was it Donald Trump that got Jimmy Kimmel off the air?
That's not an easy question to answer. Some will say yes and some will say no and they'll both have points.
I've already told you about the feud between Trump and Kimmel, so I don't need to go over that again. Let's look at what happened in the past few days.
Kimmel made the comments on Monday, but it didn't attract any attention. Then the chairman of the FCC talked about it on Wednesday and that's when things started heating up.
What is the FCC? The FCC is like a combination of the NBC and NCC in Nigeria. Basically, they regulate broadcasting and communications.
What did the chairman say?
The chairman (Brendan Carr) said that what Jimmy Kimmel said was terrible and that the FCC would look into it. He said that Kimmel tried to blame MAGA and the Republican Party for what happened. He said that they would look at whether there's some sort of remedy. Then he said that ABC could take action before the FCC does and that would help the company. He said that they could sack Jimmy Kimmel or suspend the show and that he would advise that they do something before the FCC takes action. He said that the FCC grants licenses to TV stations and that they could look at the licenses of TV stations that carry the Jimmy Kimmel Live show.
That's ⬆️ why some people believe that Trump was behind the removal.
However, after the FCC chairman's comments, small TV stations that show the Jimmy Kimmel Live show announced that they would drop it. Nexstar, a company that owns the largest number of local TV stations, also announced that they would drop the show.
That's ⬆️ why some say that it wasn't Donald Trump that got it removed. They say that TV stations were dropping the show and that it would mean less viewers and less money, so ABC decided to take it off the air.
However, Nexstar is trying to buy its biggest rival Tegna and it requires regulatory approval from the FCC for the deal to go through. The regulations say that no company can have more than 39% of the TV market (this is to prevent a monopoly) and this deal would give Nexstar control of more than 39% of the market and the FCC chairman has said that they might change the regulation, so Nexstar wants to keep him happy.
Video of the comments of the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr.
1) Jimmy said that we hit some new lows as MAGA people are trying to paint the kid that murdered Charlie Kirk as anything but one of them and they are doing anything they can to score political points from it.
2) He said that in between the finger pointing, there was some grieving. On Friday the White House flew the flag at half mast (which got some criticism), but on a human level you can see how hard the president is taking this.
3) They then cut to a video of reporters asking President Trump questions. They offered condolences on the loss of his friend, Charlie Kirk, and they asked on a personal level how is he holding up.
Donald Trump said, "Very well and by the way, you can see right there all the trucks. They just started construction of the new White House Ballroom, which is something they've been trying to get for about 150 years and it's going to be a beauty".
4) They cut back to the studio and we can hear the audience laughing. Jimmy Kimmel said, "He's at the fourth stage of grief, construction. This is not how an adult grieves the death of someone he calls a friend, this is how a four-year old mourns a goldfish".
Jimmy was basically pointing out that someone who's supposed to be Trump's friend has just died and Trump is more interested in the construction of the White House Ballroom.
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.
This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.
1) Jimmy said that we hit some new lows as MAGA people are trying to paint the kid that murdered Charlie Kirk as anything but one of them and they are doing anything they can to score political points from it.
2) He said that in between the finger pointing, there was some grieving. On Friday the White House flew the flag at half mast (which got some criticism), but on a human level you can see how hard the president is taking this.
3) They then cut to a video of reporters asking President Trump questions. They offered condolences on the loss of his friend, Charlie Kirk, and they asked on a personal level how is he holding up.
Donald Trump said, "Very well and by the way, you can see right there all the trucks. They just started construction of the new White House Ballroom, which is something they've been trying to get for about 150 years and it's going to be a beauty".
4) They cut back to the studio and we can hear the audience laughing. Jimmy Kimmel said, "He's at the fourth stage of grief, construction. This is not how an adult grieves the death of someone he calls a friend, this is how a four-year old mourns a goldfish".
Jimmy was basically pointing out that someone who's supposed to be Trump's friend has just died and Trump is more interested in the construction of the White House Ballroom.
RE: VIRAL VIDEO OF STUDENTS ENGAGING IN ILLICIT BEHAVIOUR IN DORMITORY
The attention of the State Government has been drawn to a disturbing video currently circulating on social media. The video shows a group of students, presumed to be from Excel College, Ejigbo, engaging in acts of smoking and consumption of alcohol within what appears to be a dormitory setting.
The State Government views this incident with the utmost seriousness, as it goes against the core values and behavioural standards expected within the educational system of Lagos State.
We wish to inform the public that the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MBSE), via the relevant agency, Office of Education Quality Assurance (OEQA), is fully aware of the content of the video and has commenced a thorough investigation into the matter. Our Monitoring and Investigation team has been dispatched to verify the authenticity of the video, confirm the identities of those involved, and determine the level of institutional oversight.
Preliminary engagements have also begun with the school authorities to gather all relevant facts, and any school found culpable will face appropriate sanctions in line with Lagos State education policies and regulations.
The safety, well-being, and moral values of all students remain paramount to the Lagos State Government. We are committed to ensuring that all learning environments are safe, disciplined, and conducive to the academic and moral growth of every learner.
Mr. Jamiu Tolani Alli-Balogun Honourable Commissioner Lagos State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education.
Donald Trump and Jimmy Kimmel have been exchanging insults for the past few months . . .
Past few months? This has actually been going on for years, but it got worse in the past few months.
Donald Trump would have a rally and in the middle of the rally, instead of talking about serious issues like policy, he would start insulting the comedian (saying that his show was terrible, he should be cancelled, etc), then the next day Jimmy Kimmel would say that Trump was obsessed with him, then he would insult Trump (insinuating that Trump was mad, etc).
On one occasion Trump actually mentioned Jimmy's wife (I think he said that he pities her, or something like that) and then Jimmy's wife appeared in the openning segment of the next episode of his show.
So how would Jimmy react to Trump's victory?
This is the opening of the first edition of his show after Trump won the election.
1) Donald Trump says that Jimmy Kimmel is one of the dumbest human beings ever. He said that Jimmy hosted the Academy Awards and just before the best picture award, Jimmy read his (Trump's) tweet in which Trump said that Jimmy was the worst host ever. He said that Jimmy's wife and manager were begging him not to embarrass himself.
Jimmy said that a famous scientist dedicated her life to studying chimpanzees and over time she began interacting with them. He said that he feels like the scientist because he has been observing Trump and Trump is now interacting with him (no offense to chimpanzees). Jimmy's wife appears on the show to support him.
2) Trump goes on a podcast and says that Jimmy Kimmel is a loser. He said that another comedian/talk show host is greater than Jimmy. The funny thing is that nobody, not even the hosts of the podcast know who the other comedian is. Trump said that he did Jimmy Kimmel a lot (of course Jimmy joked about that. He said that Trump was confusing him with Stormy Daniels (the porn star that accused Trump of raping her). He said that they've been on air for over 22 years and Trump has only appeared on his show 3 times).
Donald Trump predicted this a few weeks ago. He and Jimmy Kimmel have had a personal feud for years. It was announced a few weeks ago that Stephen Colbert's show was being cancelled and Donald Trump said that it was great news and that Jimmy Kimmel would be next.
1) As you know President Donald Trump has been engaged in a war with comedians. The war began near the end of his first term.
Many American late night talk shows are hosted by comedians. It has been the case for centuries that comedians always make fun of politicians. In recent times politicians have learnt to ignore comedians.
But not Donald Trump.
Trump has been in a war of words with virtually every comedian in the past 8 years! Some people ask if he doesn't have anything better to do. He'll insult them one night, they'll make fun of him the next night and he'll insult them again that night.
2) CBS has a very popular news magazine programme called 60 Minutes. The show has been on for decades. You might remember that they did an expose on corruption in Nigeria in the 1990s (during the Abacha era) and again in the 2000s (during the Obasanjo era). They used hidden cameras to expose officials that were soliciting bribes.
Anyway, 60 Minutes interviewed Kamala Harris during the last election campaign. They asked her a particular question during the interview and she gave a long answer. CBS used part of the answer in its advert for the programme and then used the other part on the actual show. In other words, the part that was used in the advert was not used in the actual show.
Donald Trump claimed that the part that was used in the advert was bad and that's why CBS cut it from the actual show. He claimed that they cut it in order to make Kamala Harris look good. He claimed that it was electoral interference and that they wanted to unfairly help Kamala Harris. Therefore he sued CBS.
3) CBS is owned by Paramount. The lawsuit has been on for a while, but Paramount are on the verge of a very important merger with Skydance. The lawsuit is a distraction and problem for them, so they decided to make the problem go away by paying Donald Trump in order to settle the lawsuit. They paid Trump $16 million.
4) At almost the same time that they settled the lawsuit, CBS announced that they were cancelling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. They say that the show will end next year (after airing for 33 years).
Many people believe that the cancellation was part of the settlement with Donald Trump, but CBS say that it was because of money. They say that the show is not making as much money as it used to and that they have to reorganise their spending because of the merger.
Stephen Colbert has often made fun of Donald Trump and Trump has been celebrating the "sacking" of Colbert. He has made a lot of posts about it on social media.
So these are the 3 videos that I need to watch tonight.
1) Stephen Colbert's response to Trump's posts.
2) Jon Stewart's response to everything. Jon has been one of my favourite talk show hosts since the 2000s. Stephen Colbert is like his protege. Stephen started out writing for Jon decades ago.
3) Jimmy Kimmel's response to everything.
Stephen Colbert makes fun of Trump, but he doesn't go overboard. He is more credible because people know that he will praise Trump if Trump deserves it and they know that he's simply saying the truth.
However, the beef between Trump and Jimmy Kimmel is personal. He is the person that Trump usually mentions by name and Trump has even brought Jimmy's wife into the beef. Jimmy does not hold back and he has completely attacked, insulted and made fun of Trump.
I can't wait to hear what Jimmy has to say about everything.
The war between Donald Trump and Jimmy Kimmel has been epic and personal. Jimmy Kimmel has been the comedian that has been able to annoy Trump the most. There was a time during his campaign that Donald Trump mentioned Jimmy Kimmel every single day.
Kimmel is on holiday, but that did not prevent him from getting involved.
Donald Trump posted (on his Truth Social website) that he heard that Jimmy Kimmel might be the next person to be fired. He said that these comedians have no talent and that they are not funny. He wondered why the networks paid them millions of dollars to destroy television.
Jimmy responded (on Instagram) that he heard that Trump might be the next to go, or maybe it's just another well kept secret (he's obviously referring to the Epstein issue).
(See screenshots of the posts below).
There's a guest host on the show while Jimmy is on holiday and this was her reaction.
ABC has pulled late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off air indefinitely over comments he made about the shooting of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
"Jimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely," a spokesperson for the Disney-owned network said in a statement. Kimmel did not comment to the BBC as he emerged shortly afterwards from the television studio in Los Angeles.
Earlier this week, Kimmel said during his show that the "Maga gang" was trying to score political points off Kirk's killing.
On Tuesday, a 22-year-old suspect appeared in court charged with aggravated murder over last Wednesday's shooting of the 31-year-old conservative activist.
Kimmel said in his Monday night monologue: "The Maga Gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it."
The late-night host also criticised flags being flown at half mast in honour of Kirk, and mocked the president's reaction to the shooting.
"This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish," said Kimmel, who has often mocked Trump.
On the day Kirk was shot, Kimmel took to Instagram to condemn the attack and send "love" to the conservative activist's family.
Authorities have not specified a motive in Kirk's fatal shooting on 10 September.
According to charging documents, the suspect's mother "explained that over the last year or so, he had become political and started to lean more to the left – becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented".
The suspect, Tyler Robinson, was not registered to any political party and did not vote in the 2022 or 2024 elections, according to authorities.
Shortly after ABC announced Kimmel had been suspended, Trump said it was "great news for America".
"The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done," the president wrote in a social media post.
Trump also criticised two other late-night hosts, Jimmy Fallon and and Seth Myers, whom he described as "two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible".
The president has previously traded barbs with Kimmel. Last year, the ABC star - who has hosted four Academy Awards ceremonies - read aloud Trump's scathing review of his performance while on stage in the middle of presenting the Oscars.
Kimmel's monologue on Monday provoked criticism, including from the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr, who said on a right-wing podcast on Wednesday that the host had shown "the sickest conduct possible" as he urged Disney to take action.
"[Broadcasters] have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest," said Carr, who was appointed by Trump to lead the US communications regulator.
"Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or, you know, there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead," Carr told The Benny Show.
He noted that an apology from Kimmel would be a "very reasonable, minimal step".
But Anna Gomez, the only Democratic member of the FCC, criticised Carr's remarks.
She posted on X that "an inexcusable act of political violence by one disturbed individual must never be exploited as justification for broader censorship or control".
She also accused the Trump administration of "increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression, not because it glorifies violence or breaks the law, but because it challenges those in power or reflects views they oppose".
The ABC announcement came just after one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the US, Nexstar Media, said it would not air Jimmy Kimmel Live! "for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight's show".
Nexstar said the comedian's remarks about Kirk were "offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse".
"[We] do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located," said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar's broadcasting division.
"Continuing to give Mr Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to pre-empt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue."
Carr thanked Nexstar "for doing the right thing" and said he hoped other broadcasters would follow its lead. Nexstar is currently seeking FCC approval for its planned $6.2bn merger with Tegna.
Sinclair, the largest ABC affiliate group in the US, followed suit. It said it would air a special remembrance programme dedicated to Kirk this Friday during the original time slot for Kimmel's show.
A person familiar with Kimmel's situation told CNBC that the host had not been fired, adding that bosses at the network intended to speak to the comedian about what he should say when he goes back on air.
Kimmel is the latest late-night host to see his long-running programme run into issues as more viewers turn to streaming over traditional network viewing.
In July, rival network CBS announced it would end The Late Show With Stephen Colbert next year after 11 seasons.
Network executives said the move was "not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount".
However, Colbert tore into the network and its parent company over the decision.
He accused CBS of leaking financial figures to the press, and alluded to a $16m (£13.5m) settlement with Trump after he sued the network over an interview its 60 Minutes programme did last year with former Vice-President Kamala Harris.
That payout came several months after the Disney-owned ABC agreed to pay $15m (£12m) to Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit after its star anchor George Stephanopoulos falsely and repeatedly said during an interview that the president had been found "liable for rape".
A jury in a civil case had determined Trump was liable for "sexual abuse", which has a specific definition under New York law.
After he was taken off air, Kimmel left the studio on Hollywood Boulevard wearing a flannel shirt and cap and rode away in a car without comment.
Fans of the show, who had been queuing up to join the live audience, expressed disappointment about the cancellation.
Janna Blackwell, who was on holiday from Virginia, told the BBC: "You know, this is getting ridiculous and stupid.
"Freedom of speech. he shared his opinion and is beign cancelled. To me that is bizare."
A small protest was also held outside the studio with a sign saying "Trump must go now".
With additional reporting from Regan Morris in Los Angeles.
Onome Ebi (born 8 May 1983) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back for the Nigeria women's national team. In 2023, she became the first African footballer, male or female, to play in 6 FIFA World Cup tournaments.
Club career
She played for Bayelsa Queens FC in the Nigerian Women's Championship before moving to Piteå IF and Djurgårdens IF in Sweden's Damallsvenskan. Ebi said "I enjoyed my stay in Turkey because of the good weather. Going to Sweden was a different ball game, as the cold weather made it difficult for me to play good football. The amateur nature of the Swedish league made me launch a return to Turkey for Ataşehir Belediyespor FC in the First League."
She then played for Turkish sides Düvenciler Lisesispor and Ataşehir Belediyespor at the First League. She made her Champions League debut in August 2012 while playing for Ataşehir Belediyespor.
Ebi returned to the Swedish Damallsvenskan in 2013 to play for Sunnanå SK before going to Belarus to play for FC Minsk in the Belarusian Premier League. While there, she was a member of the team that won the Belarusian Premier League, the Belarusian Women's Cup and the Belarusian Women's Super Cup twice.
In both club and international competitions, Ebi played as the number five in the team due to the significance it holds for her. When she arrived at Minsk, the jersey number was already taken, so she asked for the number 55 instead.
She later played for Chinese second division side Henan Jianye, where she signed in 2018.
Ebi made a significant move by joining Naija Ratels FC of Abuja for the upcoming 2023–24 Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) season, set to kick off on November 15. The veteran footballer , with a remarkable history of six FIFA Women’s World Cups, was officially introduced at a vibrant ceremony in Abuja by the Naija Ratels management. Despite numerous offers from both local and international clubs following her participation in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the 40-year-old defender expressed her joy in returning to the local league after more than a decade abroad. Ebi emphasized her deliberate choice of Naija Ratels, citing the club's youthful profile within the league, coupled with impressive organization and discipline.
International career
Ebi is a former member of the Nigerian national team, making her debut in 2003. She currently holds the record for the most caps for Nigeria, making 109 appearances for the Super Falcons.
On 6 July 2019, she became the first African Footballer to play in five Fifa World Cup Tournaments, taking part in the 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015, 2019 editions of the FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Ebi was also a member of the Nigerian squad in the 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018 editions of the African Women's Championship, winning the tournament four times 2010, 2014) 2016 and 2018.
On 16 June 2023, she was included in the 23-player Nigerian squad for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023. By appearing as a substitute in Nigeria's 3–2 victory over Australia at 40 years and 50 days, she became the first African player, male or female, to play in six world cup tournaments.
“Today, I officially retire from professional football. The journey has been filled with challenges, victories, and lessons that shaped me into who I am today. Though I hang up my boots, my purpose in the game continues — to give back, to guide, and to be a voice for players.
“Today, I officially retire from professional football. The journey has been filled with challenges, victories, and lessons that shaped me into who I am today. Though I hang up my boots, my purpose in the game continues — to give back, to guide, and to be a voice for players.
Foreign Affairs › Re: Barrack Obama Reacts To The Removal Of Jimmy Kimmel's Show by naptu2(op): 3:27am On Sep 19, 2025*. Modified: 4:13am On Sep 19, 2025
It begins with Jimmy planning to leave the US).
