By Sophie Albertie
First, Jimmy Kimmel opened his mouth. What followed was two weeks of silence.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was cancelled indefinitely on Sept. 17 after airing Sept. 15. In the last episode before suspension, Kimmel touched on the back and forth between both political parties on determining the background of Charlie Kirk’s assassin.
“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 anything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.
The second half of his commentary involved Kimmel addressing President Donald Trump’s reaction to the shooting. If one were to go looking for a transcript of this interaction, they would have much less luck.
The video clip that Kimmel included shows Trump being asked by a reporter how he was holding up following the passing of Kirk. Trump replied: “I think very good,” before changing the subject to the construction of the new White House ballroom.
“There’s something wrong with him. There really is. Who thinks like that?” Kimmel said.
This video clip was not a revelation to anyone who owned Instagram or Tiktok, But Jimmy Kimmel Live! Attracts a certain demographic of viewers that finds out snippets of information they might have not already known from just watching the news. Thousands of viewers tuned in not only to see what the host had to say about many situations, but to also tie up any loose ends of a hot-button issue while also being entertained. All talk shows carry this responsibility in one way or another, so it is odd that there has been an increase in the cancellation of such programs under the Trump administration.
CBS cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, claiming that the decision was simply financial. With the intense segments that Colbert put together every week bashing Trump and MAGA, it’s hard not to speculate.
The nature of what Kimmel said on air that night was evaluated by the FCC, an independent agency that claims to serve the “public interest,” a phrase as vague as it is direct. Especially when Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the FCC, made an appearance on a conservative podcast to threaten action against those who refused to punish Kimmel.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way…these companies can find ways to change conduct to take action on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” Carr said.
What constitutes public interest if so many people were outraged by the cancellation of Kimmel? Was this what the public wanted in the first place?
Jimmy Kimmel Live! Has since returned to ABC, but this unexpected yanking was on the basis of both factual information and opinion that certain political figures found uncomfortable to listen to. This shutdown will not be one that viewers forget.
