ABC suspended US television host Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show indefinitely, after he made remarks linking the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk to US President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.
The top US communications regulator threatened to take action over Kimmel’s on-air comments, in what The New York Times characterized as “an extraordinary exertion of political pressure.” It comes after Trump himself filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the Times this week.
Separately, CBS this year canceled its late-night show — ostensibly for financial reasons, although experts have speculated that its parent company did so in part to help win approval for a pending merger. Still, the latest move by ABC marks an “inflection point,” an executive told the media newsletter Status.