A staffer of Jimmy Kimmel’s diminished team is raising concerns regarding the likelihood that his employer will ever see his late-night show return to the airwaves.
The staffer, who spoke anonymously, criticized President Donald Trump and “MAGA a**hats” for removing Kimmel after the late-night host falsely claimed that the suspect who killed Charlie Kirk was a Trump supporter.
ABC “indefinitely” suspended Kimmel’s program due to the tone-deaf and manifestly false assertion, and the staffer recently stated that any future course of action is uncertain, if not untenable.
“I want to think it will. But I can’t imagine a scenario in which that happens. Even if Jimmy was willing to publicly apologize and donate money to whatever ghoulish conservative group that is demanding it… MAGA people will never be happy. It will never be enough,” they told Rick Ellis for his “Too Much TV” newsletter.
Kimmel has been off the air since Wednesday, when Disney’s head honchos pulled the plug.
“And Disney will look at the situation and decide it’s cheaper to buy out the rest of his contract and replace the show with reruns of Modern Family and Judge Judy. Somehow, they’ll convince themselves the worst is behind them. Until a day or two pass, and they find themselves having to defend Whoopi and the other women of The View. And no one wants to be in that position,” the staffer continued.
Kimmel said during the show on Monday, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
Disney co-chair Dana Walden reportedly informed Kimmel that his show was being terminated after the renowned late-night host refused to “kowtow” to the MAGA movement by apologizing for his previous comments.
A source from the show stated that they did not have much confidence in Disney’s decision to support Kimmel, given the significant backlash that other media figures were facing in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination.
“I had zero faith that any of the network execs had the slightest bit of stones to stand up for their employees. I mean, yeah, I was surprised it happened that specific day. But you could see it coming. Every time some MAGA a**hat would spout off about the show, the knot in my stomach just got tighter,” they said.
Asked if they believed critics of Kimmel had a point, the staffer said no.
“I don’t think they had a point. The Trump folks are like that crooked cop who wants to pull over a driver and waits until they make some slight mistake. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Black Guy, you didn’t come to a complete stop and look both ways at that last stop sign.’ That’s our show. We were always a running stop away from unemployment,” the staffer told Ellis.
It’s been a rough week for Kimmel.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Wednesday on conservative podcaster Benny Johnson’s show that he is weighing an investigation into Kimmel and ABC over the comments. The remarks referred to 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who prosecutors say fatally shot Kirk during a university event in Orem, Utah.
Authorities have described Robinson as holding leftist political views, not ties to the MAGA movement.
“When you look at the conduct that has taken place by Jimmy Kimmel, it appears to be some of the sickest conduct possible,” Carr told Johnson.
“As you’ve indicated, there are avenues here for the FCC, so there… are some ways in which I need to be a little bit careful because we could be called ultimately to be a judge on some of these claims that come up,” he added.
Kimmel mentioned Robinson during his Monday evening monologue.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” he claimed in a comment that outraged conservatives.
In response to Kimmel’s remarks, Carr suggested suspending the host could be among several possible “remedies” under consideration.
Carr told ABC and its parent company, Disney, that such one-sided political content could put their broadcast license in jeopardy. He argued that airing assertions with political implications, especially about controversial figures during a highly charged case like Kirk’s assassination, might violate FCC standards.
Kimmel, meanwhile, has resisted calls to apologize. He reportedly told executives he would not “kowtow” to political pressure from the right, and signaled he intends to stand by his statements.
This response, sources say, was not well received by ABC leadership, who were already worried about backlash from affiliates and advertisers.
Adding to the tension, influential broadcast groups Sinclair and Nexstar — both of which syndicate ABC content — warned they could pull ABC shows in affected markets. Advertiser concerns also mounted, creating a multifront pressure campaign against the network.