EDITORIAL: ABC/Disney disgracefully hands Kimmel back the mic — day after Charlie Kirk was laid to rest

Disney/ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air after his September 15 monologue about Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Now, just six days later — after Kirk’s memorial on September 21 — they’ve put him back on starting tonight. That’s a choice. It tells us where the network’s priorities sit: not with facts, not with viewers, and certainly not with the local stations that still refuse to carry him. First, the lie. In that monologue, Kimmel scolded “the MAGA gang,” suggesting conservatives were trying to portray the alleged shooter as “anything other than one of them” — telegraphing that the killer was a right-winger. That’s not what investigators or prosecutors have said. Utah filings and reporting point instead to a suspect whose texts and statements reflected hostility to Kirk’s views — especially on trans issues — not allegiance to MAGA. Authorities have not presented evidence tying the suspect to the right; the picture skews the other way. Kimmel’s framing was wrong, full stop. .HANNAFORD: Faith, forgiveness, and a gentle warning to our American friends .Second, the numbers. Kimmel’s audience is shrinking. In Q2 2025, he averaged about 1.77 million total viewers. He led the 18–49 demo with about 220,000, but the broader trend is down. September’s Live+Same Day average sat near 1.104 million, roughly an 11% drop just from August. This isn’t a blip; over the decade, late night has bled viewers, and Kimmel is part of that slide. Third, the affiliates. Disney may be rolling cameras again tonight, but big chunks of America still won’t see the show. Sinclair says its ABC stations — 38 of them — will continue to preempt Kimmel and slot in local news. Nexstar, which operates 32 ABC stations, yanked the program last week and, as of today, hasn’t announced any plan to put him back. That’s not a minor hiccup; it’s a structural revolt against the network line. .Why does this matter? Because Disney’s decision isn’t happening in a vacuum. The FCC firestorm is real. Chair Brendan Carr’s public jaw-boning of ABC — an overt signal to affiliates about “public interest” and licences — sparked bipartisan blowback and condemnation from free-speech advocates. Disney insists government pressure wasn’t the reason, but the episode triggered a national rights debate that shows no sign of cooling. Then there’s the culture fight. A slate of celebrities and civil-liberties groups blasted the suspension; petitions and boycotts flew in both directions — some against Disney for pulling him, others against ABC unless he returned. That’s the modern audience: fragmented, furious, and very willing to cancel with a click. None of that changes the hard fact that his ratings are sagging and affiliates are balking. A NewsBusters study has found that Jimmy Kimmel Live! overwhelmingly favoured left-leaning voices over the past four years. Of the political guests who appeared, 97% leaned left, with only one high-profile conservative invited — MyPillow CEO and Trump supporter Mike Lindell — whose 2023 appearance was used as part of a comedy bit that saw Kimmel mocking him from inside a claw machine. The study also tallied 7,797 political jokes across 369 episodes, with 92% targeting conservatives. That added up to 7,189 jokes aimed at conservatives, compared with just 565 directed at liberals. President Donald Trump topped the list as Kimmel’s most frequent punchline, drawing 3,584 jokes. Other common targets included President Joe Biden, George Santos, Elon Musk, Melania Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Republican supporters of the MAGA movement and the party as a whole..SYRETT: America’s Socrates: Charlie Kirk and the silencing of truth.Back to the core issue: truth. Kirk’s family and supporters deserve better than a prime-time narrative that smears them. The case record to date undermines Kimmel’s on-air insinuation. If Disney’s “thoughtful conversations” were truly about standards, they’d start with a straightforward correction and apology. Instead, the network fast-tracked a return and left their largest affiliate groups to clean up the fallout in their own communities. This isn’t complicated. Viewers are voting with remotes. Affiliates are voting with schedules. And facts are facts. If ABC wants to rebuild trust, here’s the checklist: 1) Correct the record on what was said about the assassin and why it was wrong; 2) Respect local newsroom judgement when they choose news over a damaged brand; 3) Stop blaming the audience when the audience walks. Until then, the message to the country is that Disney will protect a star’s script over the truth and over the stations that carry their signal.Kirk’s funeral was two days ago. The wounds are fresh. Re-lighting the “Applause” sign without fixing the record isn’t courage. It is a corporate reflex, and it is precisely why so many stations, and so many viewers, are changing the channel.

EDITORIAL: ABC/Disney disgracefully hands Kimmel back the mic — day after Charlie Kirk was laid to rest

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