Beyond Jimmy Kimmel: Eying bottom line, US media giants bow to Trump

Demonstrators hold signs as they rally to protest the cancelation of the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" show outside the El Capitan Entertainment Centre on Hollywood Boulevard, from where the show is broadcast in Hollywood, California on September 18, 2025. Kimmel's late-night show was pulled from the air on September 17 hours after the US government threatened to cancel broadcasting licenses because of comments the host made about the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. (AFP)

The suspension by Disney-owned ABC of talk show host Jimmy Kimmel is the latest surrender by a US media giant to pressure from the Trump administration, putting the bottom line over free speech.

ABC's decision to pull Kimmel off the air comes two months after CBS announced plans to cancel "The Late Show" featuring Stephen Colbert, another unsparing critic of President Donald Trump.

Kimmel, 57, was suspended "indefinitely" by ABC because of remarks the comedy show host made about last week's murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

In a similar vein, the Emmy-winning Colbert was canned shortly after he criticized a decision by CBS's parent company, Paramount Global, to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump over an interview with former vice president Kamala Harris.

ABC also came in for criticism after it agreed in December to donate $15 million to Trump's eventual presidential library to settle a defamation suit instead of fighting it out in court.

Kimmel's departure came after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr openly threatened the licenses of ABC affiliates that broadcast his show.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from a visit to Britain, Trump complained about the late night shows and networks, saying "all they do is hit Trump."

"They are licensed. They are not allowed to do that," he claimed.

Democratic lawmakers and media analysts condemned the FCC threats to revoke broadcast licenses and said media and entertainment corporations were placing their economic interests over free speech rights.

"What we are witnessing is an outright abuse of power," Harris wrote on X.

"This administration is attacking critics and using fear as a weapon to silence anyone who would speak out. Media corporations -- from television networks to newspapers -- are capitulating to these threats."

For Senator Richard Blumenthal, "Jimmy Kimmel is off-the-air because of an unprecedented act of gov't censorship."

"The FCC has now proven that its sole mission is to be the speech police for Trump, punishing his perceived opponents & rewarding his cronies," Blumenthal wrote on X.

- 'Coercion' -

Jeffrey McCall, a professor of media studies at DePauw University, said Kimmel's ratings have been "questionable for a long time."

"ABC and Disney at some point just had to make a decision that was based more on the marketplace," McCall said. "They've just decided that, from a corporate ratings and revenue standpoint, he's no longer viable."

Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, said the "problem lies in corporations that apparently make decisions based solely on financial considerations and cannot be trusted to protect the public."

The Colbert cancellation came as the FCC was considering a multi-billion-dollar deal between Paramount Global and Skydance, a company owned by the son of Trump billionaire ally Larry Ellison.

The FCC gave the green light to the merger a few days after CBS pulled the plug on Colbert.

It also obtained an extraordinary pledge from Skydance that it will "adopt measures that can root out the bias that has undermined trust in the national news media."

In the Kimmel case, the Nexstar group -- which controls more than 200 local television stations in the United States -- was the first to announce it would no longer air Kimmel's show after FCC chair Carr's remarks Wednesday.

The Texas company is currently seeking FCC approval of a bid to acquire rival Tegna.

Some right-wing commentators have condemned Kimmel's silencing, comparing it to the 2023 firing of conservative darling Tucker Carlson by Fox News or the 2018 booting of sitcom star Roseanne Barr over tweets seen as racist.

Paulson said the situations are not comparable.

"In this case, the head of the Federal Communications Commission is targeting the on-air talent," he said. "Others have lost their jobs because of public outrage.

"When the public is angry, networks can take that into account," he said. "But when the government is angry, that's coercion."