On September 17, 2025, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show was set to be "pre-empted indefinitely" following the TV personality's comment on Charlie Kirk's demise.In a recent episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the comedian said that “many in MAGA-land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk”, implying that Donald Trump's political movement was exploiting Kirk's murder.This led to ABC announcing that they will be pre-empting Kimmel's show, meaning another show will air during the slot. Additionally, on September 19, 2025, X page @allenanalysis posted a video of Kimmel's studio being reportedly cleared out, showing moving trucks and people hauling away furniture from the set.The video garnered a lot of traction and currently features over 897K views at the time of this writing. Commenting on the video, an X user wrote, "He isn't coming back"O.T Ace @AceOfOTLINKHe isn't coming backSome netizens speculated that ABC was planning to sideline Kimmel all along, citing that the ratings for his late-night show weren't impressive. Jeffrey @WDIKCB_JCLLINKNice, that means the show was worse off then they thought. What's the true cost of propaganda that doesn't work.Paul_E_Smith🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧 @pauleeesmithLINKKimmel has lost them so much money due to tanking viewing figures that they have to sell the furniture to get some of it back.On the other hand, some X users commented on how cancelling Kimmel's show wasn't a "classy" move on the network's part. Linda Stevens 🌎 @Linda__StevensLINKNot very classy @DisneyCrabbyjacq McGoo @CrabbyjacqLINKHe will get picked up by another network, HBO, Paramount, netfix, something. It might be a better deal for him and will for sure push people around from ABS/Hulu/Disney! This is a blessing for Jimmy.More details about Jimmy Kimmel's pre-emption following the comedian's comment on Charlie Kirk's demise exploredOne of the reasons that led ABC to pre-empt Kimmel's late-night show was FCC chair Brendan Carr expressing his discontent with Kimmel's comment about Kirk.Brendan Carr threatened to cut off ABC affiliate broadcast licenses following Kimmel's comment concerning MAGA and Charlie Kirk. Soon after, Nexstar Media, one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the US, announced that it would not air Kimmel's show "for the foreseeable future". According to CNN's report dated September 18, 2025, a source close to ABC said, “This isn’t just about ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live.’ It’s about all of ABC and all of the shows and all employees."On the other hand, Kimmel's contract with the network is set to expire in May 2026. While there weren't any reports concerning a renewal of Kimmel's contract following the completion of his tenure, the comedian had joked about contemplating whether to renew his contract with the network in 2022.According to CNN, at the time, Kimmel had said, “After two decades at ABC, I am now looking forward to three years of what they call ‘quiet quitting,’”Following the news of the pre-emption of Kimmel's late night show, Donald Trump took to Truth Social and wrote: "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. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible."However, multiple celebrities came forward to support Kimmel, arguing that his statement on Charlie Kirk's demise was an example of free speech and not hate speech.Jimmy Kimmel Live! first aired on January 26, 2003, and went on to become one of the most popular late night talk shows.According to the Guardian's report dated September 19, 2025, ABC and Disney executives are in discussions to bring back Kimmel on the network later.