‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!' pulled off the air ‘indefinitely' over Charlie Kirk joke

And at breaking news here at 6 today, the future of the late night show Jimmy Kimmel Live is in jeopardy. Good evening once again everyone, I'm Colleen Williams.

And I'm Michael Brownlee. ABC is preempting the show indefinitely because of comments he made by our following, I should say, the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

NBC 4's Conan Nolan joins us live from the newsroom. Conan, that announcement is sending shockwaves through Hollywood tonight.

It is, Colleen, and it deserves a little bit of a backstory. in the newsroom. Conan, that announcement is sending shockwaves through Hollywood tonight. It is, Colleen, and it deserves a little bit of a back story. Prior to the news conference on Tuesday that delineated the evidence against the assassin, the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk, there was a narrative over the weekend that perhaps this man, Tyler Robinson, was actually a supporter of President Donald Trump. In fact, there were those who believed he was part of the ultra-right wing who considered

Charlie Kirk to be too liberal, that he was too accommodating to political moderates and leftists. That turned out not to be the case. But in between that wording on the Internet and what happened on Tuesday with the announcement of the evidence, it appears that Jimmy Kimmel bought into what was being said online and that led to the monologue that is in dispute on Monday night.

The controversy stemmed from this joke during Monday night's monologue on the Jimmy Kimmel live show taped on Hollywood Boulevard. It regarded not slain political activist Charlie Kirk, but Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man accused in Kirk's murder.

We had 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.

You can see how hard the president is taking this.

I condone the loss of your friend Charlie Kirk. May I ask, sir, personally, how are you holding up over the last day and a half, sir?

I think very good, and by the way, right there, you see all the trucks? They've just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House.

Yes, he's at the fourth stage of grief, construction. The day following the monologue, prosecutors in Utah County, Utah indicated that the killer was not a supporter of President Donald Trump, but rather of the political left, and viewed Charlie Kirk as an enemy of the trans and gay movements. To date, the Nexstar Media Corporation, which is in need of FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger with the media company Tegna, issued a statement saying it strongly objected to Kimmel's comments and was going to replace the show with other programming in its ABC affiliated markets. ABC television announced it is suspending airing of the program indefinitely. FCC chairman Brendan Carr on conservative commentator Benny Johnson's podcast threatened

to take action against ABC for Kimmel suggesting that Kirk's killer was a Trump supporter.

And what appears to be an action, appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into that narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican motivated person. If that's what happened here with his conduct, that is really, really sick.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, who has long been a critic of Jimmy Kimmel's, responded from the United Kingdom, in part saying on his truth social media, congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. The words of President Trump. The words of President Trump. I'm Conan Nolan, NBC4.