Hollywood stars erupt with outrage after ABC pulls Jimmy Kimmel off air

Hollywood stars, unions and fans have criticized Disney’s ABC for indefinitely pulling “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”^[1] off the air after pressure from the Federal Communications Commission over his comments about the death of Charlie Kirk.

Kimmel criticized Republicans and the MAGA movement in his monologue Monday night, and ABC announced it was axing the show^[2] Wednesday, hours after FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened to “take action.”

Kimmel’s suspension drew praise from President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans. But Hollywood, where Kimmel is popular as a frequent host of the Oscars and the Emmys, leaped to his defense.

Entertainers rally around Kimmel

Comedy icon and former late-night host David Letterman blasted the move at The Atlantic Festival in New York City on Thursday. He called it a “misery, and in the world of somebody who is an authoritarian, maybe a dictatorship, sooner or later, everyone is going to be touched.”

“It’s managed media, and it’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous, and you can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian, criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works,” Letterman said.

Ben Stiller said simply on X^[3]: “This isn’t right.” Actor Jamie Lee Curtis, who had spoken emotionally about Kirk’s death, shared an image of Kimmel and a supportive quote on Instagram.

Comedian Wanda Sykes also said in an Instagram video that while Trump had not brokered an end to the wars in Gaza or Ukraine, “he did end freedom of speech within his first year.”

Actor Jean Smart shared a picture of herself with Kimmel on Instagram and said she was “horrified” by the show’s cancellation.

“What Jimmy said was FREE speech, not hate speech. People seem to only want to protect free speech when it suits THEIR agenda,” she said.

Comedian Michael Kosta, a rotating host on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” said on his Instagram story^[4] Wednesday night: “This is a serious moment in American history. TV networks MUST push back. This is complete BS.”

Comedian, actor and podcaster Marc Maron used his Instagram account^[5] to call on free speech advocates to speak out against the pulling of Kimmel’s show.

“If you have any concern or belief in real freedom or the constitution and free speech, this is it,” he said. “This is the deciding moment, this is what authoritarianism looks like in this country, it’s happening.”

Josh Gad called out ABC parent company Disney on Threads^[6], telling the company “this ain’t it” with a link to the news of Kimmel’s show being pulled off the air.

“I see we are at the passive participation of authoritarianism now,” Gad said in another post^[7]. “God help us all.”

Henry Winkler, instead of going after ABC’s decision, lauded Kimmel, calling him the “most wonderful fellow” on X^[8].

“His humor, his insights are important to keep showing us who we are,” Winkler wrote.

Actor and comedian Mike Birbiglia called on fellow comedians to “call out the insanity of pulling Kimmel off the air.”

“I’ve spent a lot of time in public and private defending comedians I don’t agree with,” Birbiglia wrote^[9]. He said that if people don’t call out Kimmel’s forced hiatus, “don’t bother spouting off about free speech anymore.”

Kathy Griffin, who has her own troubled history with Trump^[10], said, “It is very important to have Jimmy Kimmel’s back right now,” and encouraged her Instagram followers^[11] to “Be vocal.”

Comedian Alex Edelman said on X,^[12] “This is the actual cancel culture everyone claims to hate so much.”

Rosie O’Donnell called the move “unacceptable” in an Instagram post^[13] and said corporate executives are “bowing to the orange monster — america is no more.”

Hundreds protest outside Disney

Unions representing writers and actors — the Writers Guild of America, the American Federation of Musicians and the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — condemned the show’s indefinite cancellation as an attack on free speech.

The outrage over ABC’s decision spilled over into the streets on Thursday, as members of WGA rallied outside Disney Studios in Burbank, California, as part of a protest co-organized with the group Burbank Against ICE.

The protesters carried signs that read “Defend Free Speech” and “ABC Bends the Knee to Fascism” as they walked the sidewalks to the sound of approving car horns on Alameda Boulevard.

WGA President Meredith Steihm said she was at a members meeting Wednesday night when news of Disney’s decision to pull the show began to spread.

“This felt like a siren last night,” Steihm said. “We put a statement out, but the question was ‘What are we going to do?’ The first thing we did was gather here.”

Some of the protesters are writers on current Disney shows who said they showed up for work Thursday looking for a way to express their frustration with the studio. A few people approached by NBC News declined to give their names out of fear of career reprisals.

Others at the protest said they wanted to speak up for the role comedy plays in a free society.

“I believe this is an attack on free speech,” said comedy writer and producer Susie Mendoza, founder of the independent production company Pretty Pink Pictures. “Comedy is a way to build a bridge between opposing sides, and when it starts getting shut down, then the conversation stops.”

Burbank Mayor Nikki Perez and City Council member Constantine Anthony were also at the protest.

Anthony, who was wearing a “Star Wars” T-shirt, compared pulling the late-night show to storylines on the Disney+ “Star Wars” show “Andor,”^[14] which explores themes of authoritarianism.

“Do you guys even watch your own stuff?” he said, talking in the direction of the studio. “’Cause you’re doing the opposite.”

Another protest, organized by the group Refuse Fascism, was planned for Thursday afternoon outside the El Capitan Entertainment Center in Hollywood, where “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is shot.

“We are supposed to have the right to express our feelings and our thoughts without fear of repercussion, and that’s what this is about,” BK Wong said outside the theater. “That’s why I’m out here today.”

She called ABC’s decision “really scary,” adding that she thinks if people “don’t stop it, it’s a sign of things to come.”

“I’m going to fight for free speech rights as long as they’re available to me,” she added. “And I hope that they will continue to be available to me.”

Public figures outside Hollywood weigh in

Those outside of Hollywood, including politicians and news figures, also took issue with ABC’s pulling Kimmel off the air, including a group of Democratic leaders calling for Carr to “resign immediately” after engaging in a “corrupt abuse of power.”

“He has disgraced the office he holds by bullying ABC, the employer of Jimmy Kimmel, and forcing the company to bend the knee to the Trump administration,” said a statement from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Reps. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, Pete Aguilar and Ted Lieu of California, Joe Neguse of Colorado and Suzan DelBene of Washington.

The group also called out the Trump administration, saying its “war on the First Amendment is blatantly inconsistent with American values.”

Former President Barack Obama said the Trump administration^[15] “has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”

Journalist Don Lemon wrote on^[16] Threads^[17] that the cancellation “should send a chill down everyone’s spine in America,” alongside a video of himself in which he said he doesn’t think what Kimmel said was all that controversial.

“This is a very dangerous and scary moment for America,” Lemon continued.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said on X^[18] that “the first amendment is out the window” after Kimmel hurt “MAGA’s feelings by holding a mirror up.”

“NO OUTRAGE, let alone coverage, because you only value certain lives & certain speech,” Crockett said, accusing conservative media of picking and choosing which recent American killings to focus on.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., simply shared part of the text of the First Amendment on Instagram^[19].

MSNBC host Chris Hayes put it plainly on X^[20]: “This is the most straightforward attack on free speech from state actors I’ve ever seen in my life and it’s not even close.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, took a different angle, instead going after Carr and his past social media posts.

“This aged well,” Newsom wrote on X^[21], with a screenshot of a past post of Carr’s that championed free speech. A number of Carr’s his past social media posts supporting First Amendment rights came to light Thursday, prompting blowback.

Some public figures cheer ABC’s decision

On Thursday morning, Vice President JD Vance jokingly congratulated^[22] Secretary of State Marco Rubio on X as “the new host of ABC’s late night show!” without commenting further on Kimmel’s suspension.

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who has traditionally leaned conservative when it comes to politics, discussed cancel culture in social media posts^[23] following the Kimmel news and said he didn’t think what happened falls in that category.

“When a person says something that a ton of people find offensive, rude, dumb in real time and then that person is punished for it that’s not cancel culture,” Portnoy said on X^[24]. “That is consequences for your actions.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Thursday he doesn’t know anything about ABC’s decision to suspend Kimmel and said, “It doesn’t have anything to do with Congress.”

“What I do know is that ABC is a private company, and they can make their own choices on who they want to wear their brand, so to speak. So this is a matter of ABC’s leadership,” Johnson said.

Conservative voice Benny Johnson said on X^[25] that Kimmel “lied about Charlie Kirk’s assassination, blamed him for his own murder, and mocked him on air,” adding, “The line was crossed.”

“Thanks to FCC pressure and Nexstar and Sinclair pulling him from millions of homes, his platform is destroyed. He’s finished. Will never recover,” Johnson said. “This isn’t cancel culture. This is CONSEQUENCE culture. For Charlie Kirk.”

ESPN host Stephen A. Smith asked,^[26] “Where was the joke?” referring to the comments Kimmel made that apparently got him pulled off the air.

There “wasn’t anything funny about that,” he said.