Face of the Day

Disney-owned ABC will take its late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air following conservative backlash to comments Kimmel made on air in the wake of United States right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk’s death.

A network spokesperson did not comment beyond saying that the show will be pre-empted “indefinitely”.

The biggest owner of ABC-affiliated stations, Nexstar, said earlier today that Kimmel’s programme would be replaced starting today, linking the move to statements the late-night show host made about last week’s killing of Kirk.

“Mr Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, wrote in a statement.

“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,” Alford added.

On his show on Tuesday NZT, Kimmel, 57, said: “We had some new lows over the weekend with the Maga gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and with everything they can to score political points from it”.

Tyler Robinson, the suspect in Kirk’s shooting, does not appear to be ideologically conservative or a supporter of US President Donald Trump.

According to charging documents from prosecutors released earlier this week, Robinson sent a message to his flatmate that he “had enough of [Kirk’s] hatred”.

NZ Herald