President Donald Trump celebrated Disney-owned ABC’s indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after Wednesday night, congratulating ABC on “finally having the courage to do what needs to be done.” Trump also posted on his platform, incorrectly, that Kimmel’s show had been “cancelled.” The president continued posting, indicating he wants to reshape late-night TV.
Trump used the suspension – which happened after an ABC affiliate revolt over Kimmel’s criticisms of conservatives’ response to the assassination of activist Charlie Kirk – to double down on his feud with late-night television broadly, targeting Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers as “two total losers.”
“Their ratings are also horrible,” Trump posted on his platform, TruthSocial. “Do it NBC!!!”
But Robert Thompson of Syracuse University, a widely cited multimedia and downright entertainment savant, told Fortune the suspension can’t be explained by ratings alone.“You don’t pull a midweek show that’s already booked because of ratings,” he said. “That’s not how networks operate.”
Despite Trump’s call, the move to pull Kimmel off the air was not just a network decision: it was driven by a revolt from Nexstar and Sinclair, companies that control dozens of ABC affiliate stations, only hours after Kimmel’s controversial show aired. Disney-owned ABC responded by suspending Jimmy Kimmel Live! Indefinitely.
