THE JIMMY Kimmel Live! crew was blindsided when they learned the show was pulled off the air through news reports just minutes before filming was scheduled to begin.
Jimmy's show was suspended on Wednesday night, September 17 following backlash over a previous monologue about activist Charlie Kirk's death.
An insider familiar with the late-night show's production told The U.S. Sun that the situation unfolded quickly on Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles.
"Things transpired very fast. Word filtered down to the individual stations around 3 pm that Jimmy would get pulled and it sent station heads panicking," the insider said.
"Jimmy and the crew were getting ready to film when, at 3:45 pm, news broke widely and that's how the crew found out. They were shocked."
Taping typically starts at 4:30 pm, according to the show's website.
The insider said Disney/ ABC staffers across the board had already been walking on eggshells in recent weeks.
They said, adding to the upset, "ABC wouldn't give a statement to affiliates so they could properly cover the story themselves.
"That left some stations in a situation where they had to make the call to skip coverage of the Kimmel story altogether in their newscasts," they added.
The source said that although Jimmy's show isn't on air, his crew is still being compensated.
"The show has not been cancelled, despite the reporting, so everyone's getting paid for the time being," they added.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to reps for Jimmy Kimmel Live! and ABC corporate.
EXACTLY WHAT KIMMEL SAID THAT GOT HIM YANKED
This is Jimmy Kimmel's opening monologue from Monday, September 15, that got the show pulled from air.
Kimmel said, "We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.
"In between the finger-pointing, the White House flew the flag at half-staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level, you can see how hard the president was taking this," he continued before the show cut to a clip of Trump.
The president was seen standing on the White House lawn as a reporter asked him how he was "holding up" a day and a half following Kirk's death.
"I think very good," said Trump before abruptly pointing to trucks and saying they are starting construction on the new White House ballroom.
The show then cut back to Kimmel, who said, "He's at the fourth stage of grief: construction," before the audience burst out in laughter.
"This is not how an adult grieved the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish. OK?"
Kimmel said this wasn't the first time that Trump has dodged questions about Kirk, and the show cut to an interview the president had with Fox & Friends the morning after the conservative activist's death.
Trump told the hosts that he was chatting with architects about the White House project when he learned about the shooting before the show cut back to Kimmel.
"And then we installed the most beautiful chandelier," mocked Kimmel.
After the news broke on Wednesday, crews were seen milling around on the show's lot.
On Wednesday night, Jimmy's show was replaced by Celebrity Family Feud, which is hosted by Steve Harvey.
On Thursday, crew members were photographed breaking down parts of the show in the rain and packing the production items into trucks.
TV WARS
Jimmy's future was thrown into uncertainty after media company Nexstar called on its ABC-affiliated stations to stop airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! "for the foreseeable future."
"Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets," the company said in a statement.
Andrew Alford, Nexstar's broadcasting division president, criticized Jimmy's comments as "offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse."
He added that continuing to give Jimmy a platform was "simply not in the public interest at the current time," stating, "We have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue."
Meanwhile, President Trump weighed in on the controversy, celebrating ABC's decision and criticizing Jimmy.
Speaking during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, Trump remarked, "Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else. And he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk, and Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person."
"You can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent," Trump added.
In a post shared on Truth Social before the press conference, Trump wrote, "Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done."
He went on to take aim at another long-time critic, Stephen Colbert, whose late-night show is set to end permanently in May 2026 due to declining ratings.
"Kimmel has zero talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that's possible," Trump wrote.
Jimmy has been the host of ABC's late-night program since 2003.
KIRK'S ASSASSINATION
Charlie Kirk was killed on 10 September while speaking with students at Utah Valley University in Orem.
Tyler Robinson, 22, allegedly fired a single shot at the conservative activist, officials said.
Robinson turned himself in 33 hours later after confessing the crime to his family, Utah Governor Spencer Cox confirmed.
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