The American Broadcasting Company has suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night TV show indefinitely after he made controversial comments about the shooting of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.

Kimmel, the veteran late-night comic, made several comments about the reaction to Kirk’s assassination on his shows earlier in the week.

“Many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalise on the murder of Charlie Kirk,” he said.

Nextstar Communications Group, which operates 23 ABC affiliates, said it would pull the show from Wednesday (US time), bringing a swift move from the US network.

Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division Kimmel’s comments about Kirk’s death were “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse.”

Shortly after, an ABC spokesperson said: “Jimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely.”

There was no immediate comment from Kimmel.

Among his other controversial comments on Monday, he had said: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it”.

Kimmel said US President Donald Trump’s response to Kirk’s death was “not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK?”

He also said FBI chief Kash Patel had handled the investigation into the murder “like a kid who didn’t read the book, BS’ing his way through an oral report”.

He returned to the topic on Tuesday, mocking Vice President JD Vance’s performance as guest host for Kirk’s podcast.

Kimmel also said Trump was “fanning the flames” by attacking people on the left.

“Which is it, are they a bunch of sissy pickleball players because they’re too scared to be hit by tennis balls, or a well-organised deadly team of commandos? Because they can’t be both of those things,” he said.

Trump celebrated the cancellation on his social media site Truth Social.

“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” he wrote.

Trump also targeted two of Kimmel’s fellow late-night hosts, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. He said they should also be cancelled, calling them “two total losers”.

But there was also criticism.

“A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say,” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker wrote on X.

“This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand.

“All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.”

Actor Ben Stiller also took to X to write, simply: “This isn’t right”, while Michael Keaton shared a handwritten note that read, “ABC, NBC, CBS, stand up!!! Stand the f— up!!!”.

Kimmel’s contract is up at the end of next season, which ends in May 2026.

White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich posted on social media platform X: “Welcome to Consequence Culture. Normal, commonsense Americans are no longer taking the bullshit and companies like ABC are finally willing to do the right and reasonable thing.”

Kimmel, like CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert, has often criticised Trump and his policies on his ABC show.

CBS said earlier in 2025 it was cancelling Colbert’s show at the end of this season for financial reasons. Some critics believe his stance on Trump also played a role.

-with AAP