‘I previously said there was something we’re not seeing between Julia-Ruth and Divarni, and it turns out their secrets and sex are being held from the group, too’
17:18, 21 Oct 2025Updated 17:18, 21 Oct 2025
Zara Woodcock is a London-based reporter from Thailand and England and works as a Showbiz Reporter for The Mirror. She lived in Saudi Arabia before moving to the UK to study for a BA and MA in Journalism at Kingston University, London. Zara joined Reach in 2021 and loves writing about all things celebrity, movies and music. She spends too much time watching horror movies and reality television. You can contact Zara at [email protected]
MAFS icon Emma Barnes: ‘Julia-Ruth might be using sex with Divarni to stay on television’(Image: Getty Images)
I’m starting to feel like I should disregard everything I say about most of the couples in this experiment, because the twists and turns of Married at First Sight are never-ending! This week, we saw the drama unfolding between Julia-Ruth and Divarni, Maeve and Joe, and Grace and Ashley over a steamy spa day and a dinner party where the heat was SERVED, even though the actual food is cold.
Last week, I said there was something we’re not seeing between Julia-Ruth and Divarni, and it turns out the secrets and sex are being held from the group, too.
Julia-Ruth feels like, instead of owning up that she’s just not into Divarni, she’s using sex to stay in the experiment (or on TV) for longevity. This programme is about authenticity, real people, real highs and lows of relationships, so you can smell “the extra 15 minutes of screen time” that Keye voiced at the dinner party a mile off.
I predict we’ll see a “stay” from this couple at the commitment ceremony to solidify that they just want another week on the telly.
A quick follower count shows the popularity of the cast plain as day – the audience likes Leah, Ashley, and Maeve the most. These are all relatable, day-to-day cast members who deserve the world for coming in and being true to themselves.
I think that was mine and Kristina’s story, too. I genuinely went into the experiment expecting a great story to tell in the pub for the rest of my life; anything and everything else that has come my way is a fabulous bonus. I genuinely think these three would say the same.
Haven’t we seen a turnaround for the girls?! I said on Saturday that Leigh and Leah have no chance, but I’ve completely changed my mind in two nights, and I’m proud of them.
I met Leigh a couple of weeks into the show and remember saying to her, “My gosh, you can smile in real life!” She was lovely, we had a laugh, and I’m glad we’re seeing her warm up on screen.
I’m also glad her resting bitch face hasn’t moved, the edit have obviously had a play with that at the beginning but remind me not to get on the wrong side of that stare!
So, onto the retreat, one of my favourite memories of the show, clambering onto the coach like a school trip.
With Leah’s dresses getting bigger by the week, let’s hope she’ll fit the next one through the sliding doors at the dinner party, and let’s hope the retreat serves drama, a wife swap and gives Leisha some more memes to make because they’re killing me on TikTok!
In the late 1990s and early aughts, the conservative Parents Television Council struck fear in the hearts of network TV executives for its high-profile campaigns against shows it deemed too raunchy.
The watchdog group, founded by conservative commentator L. Brent Bozell III, railed against Fox’s “Melrose Place” and “Family Guy”; NBC’s “Just Shoot Me”; and the CW’s “Gossip Girl.” It also singled out CBS following the infamous Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake “nipplegate” controversy during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show when the singer’s breast was briefly exposed.
But the Parents Television Council Inc. — whose members lodged thousands of indecency complaints with the Federal Communications Commission — has folded. Earlier this month, the Burbank-based nonprofit filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Delaware court, saying it had $284,823 in liabilities, which include staff member salaries, insurance payments and credit card debt. The filing lists $91,874 in assets.
The group’s demise reflects broad cultural changes, including a fractured media environment and consumers’ shift to streaming and social media apps such as TikTok for entertainment. Parents also have tools, including the ability to configure settings on streaming accounts to try to shield children from inappropriate content.
The PTC’s power came, in large part, from its ability to flood the FCC with indecency complaints. But the FCC, which licenses broadcasters, does not regulate streaming services, YouTube or TikTok.
The council had clout with advertisers, which put pressure on network programmers to minimize shows that would raise the group’s ire and threats of boycotts.
“I’m disappointed but I’m still very proud of what we did and what we achieved,” Tim Winter, former president of the group, said Friday. “We were able to raise awareness about so many important issues — issues that are still out there.”
“Like most businesses, it came down to money,” said Winter, who retired three years ago. “It’s just a slog out there to fundraise.”
Decades ago, the group hauled in millions of dollars in donations. The PTC boasted more than 653,000 members and supporters by 2000. However, in 2023, the most recent year of available tax reports, the Parents Television Council raised just $1.6 million, down from $4.7 million in 2007.
Bozell, long a booster of President Trump, now serves in his administration as ambassador to South Africa.
One of the PTC’s early efforts was to urge broadcasters to reserve the 8 p.m. hour for family-friendly fare. That was the custom of the networks in the 1970s; but two decades later, there was a rise in sexually suggestive content.
Over the years, the group hired analysts to monitor TV programming, published detailed reports and TV show rankings. Winter testified before a U.S. Senate committee hearing in 2007 on the impact of media violence on children.
Advertisers were sensitive to the PTC’s warnings.
“We were able to redirect tens of millions of dollars away from more explicit programming and into more family-friendly shows,” Winter said.
The PTC also spoke out against media consolidation, which accelerated in the 1990s, “the problem of having too few voices hold the microphone,” Winter said.
Netflix responded by deleting a graphic suicide scene, and the show was later canceled.
“The media culture is no less toxic than it was years ago. And in some ways, it is more toxic,” Winter said, adding that other organizations will have to carry the mantle. “The mission is more important than ever.”
As Kimmel returns, he is expected to address the controversy that led major station groups to drop his late-night comedy show.
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel returns to ABC on Tuesday in the United States after being suspended for nearly a week following controversial remarks about the alleged assassin of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, which provoked backlash from the administration of President Donald Trump.
As he takes the stage again, Kimmel is expected to address the controversy, which stirred outrage among some viewers, triggered threats of federal regulatory action, sparked a debate over freedom of speech, and led two major television station groups to pull the late-night comedy show Jimmy Kimmel Live! from their schedules.
Here is what we know:
When will Jimmy Kimmel come back on air?
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is scheduled to return on Tuesday night in its regular 11:35pm ET slot (03:35 GMT on Wednesday), airing on ABC, with episodes also available to stream on Hulu.
However, Sinclair Broadcast Group – a major operator of local TV stations that include more than 30 ABC affiliates – announced that those stations will avoid Kimmel’s show, and instead, will air local news programming. Washington, DC, and parts of California and Florida will be among the parts of the US that will be affected by Sinclair’s decision.
Separately, Nexstar, also a big owner of ABC affiliate stations, announced on Tuesday that it will replace Jimmy Kimmel Live! with different programming.
Where can you watch it?
Viewers in major US markets, such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, where Disney owns and operates local ABC affiliates, will be able to watch the show. It will also be available nationwide on abc.com and via streaming on Hulu.
You can also watch ABC on the following platforms:
Full episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! are available the next day on Hulu and Disney+, with clips posted to the show’s YouTube channel after an episode airs, including Kimmel’s opening monologue.
What is expected to happen on the show?
Kimmel is expected to address the events of the past week – in terms of what happened to him. But how he does this, and what else he focuses on, is unclear.
What happened to Kimmel and his show?
On September 10, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a university event in Utah. After a 33-hour manhunt, police arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson and charged him with aggravated murder.
Prosecutors have since said that though Robinson comes from a staunchly Republican family, his own politics had veered to the left in recent years, based on interviews with his relatives.
Before those revelations from prosecutors, Kimmel had criticised President Donald Trump and his supporters over their response to Kirk’s death. On his show, he accused the “MAGA gang” of twisting the story for political gain by suggesting that the suspected assassin was left-leaning. Kimmel also mocked Trump’s reaction to Kirk’s death – the president had described the killed activist as a close friend, but then, in public comments, also appeared distracted about renovations at the White House – as childish.
Kimmel’s remarks led to a strong backlash. On September 17, broadcast groups Nexstar and Sinclair pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! from their stations.
The dispute grew after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr called for action against Kimmel, Disney and ABC, a move some condemned as government overreach.
Since the suspension, some viewers have begun cancelling subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu, using hashtags like #CancelDisney and #CancelABC to protest.
Who are the guests expected in this show?
US reports say that on Tuesday, Jimmy Kimmel Live! will host American actor Glen Powell and Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan. The following night, the guests are set to include American actors Ethan Hawke and Lisa Ann Walter.
On Thursday, the show’s couch will feature retired American football star Peyton Manning and actor Oscar Nunez, with Alex G taking the stage as the musical act.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to the airwaves after Disney lifted its indefinite suspension of the US late-night show, but two of the largest affiliate owners – Sinclair Broadcasting Group and Nexstar Media Group – will not air the long-running programme.
Disney owns the broadcaster ABC, home of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. On Monday evening, Disney announced that the show would return following discussions with Kimmel’s team and network representatives. However, two of the major affiliate operators have not reversed course.
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Keeping the show off those affiliate TV stations significantly cuts into Kimmel’s reach. Nexstar and Sinclair together own and operate 70 of the 250 ABC stations across the United States, putting them at odds with the network.
Nexstar’s vested interest
ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s show after the comedian made remarks about the killing of conservative figure Charlie Kirk. The suspension came just hours after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr warned that stations carrying the show could face fines, or even lose their broadcast licences, urging them to “step up”.
Carr’s comments drew pushback across the political spectrum, including from US President Donald Trump’s allies. Texas Senator Ted Cruz called Carr’s remarks “dangerous as hell”, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Cruz “got it right”.
Nexstar owns 23 ABC affiliates and is currently pursuing a $6.2bn merger with competitor Tegna, a deal requiring FCC approval. If completed, the combined company would reach 80 percent of US households, far above the current 39 percent cap, and would require a policy change. Carr has long supported removing that cap.
“Nexstar’s capitulation in hopes of gaining approval for its merger with Tegna is actually Exhibit A in why it should not be allowed to merge with Tegna. Large conglomerates have enormous leverage to facilitate the Trump administration’s crackdown on free speech, both by censoring themselves and by bullying the networks,” Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told Al Jazeera.
Carr praised Nexstar last week for dropping Kimmel from its affiliates in markets such as Salt Lake City, Nashville and New Orleans.
Margot Susca, professor of journalism, accountability,and democracy at the American University in Washington, DC, said the FCC’s pressure on Kimmel sets a troubling precedent.
“I think what is concerning is that it’s Jimmy Kimmel now, but it could be Meet The Press [which airs on NBC] next year if another corporate media owner needs to make a deal and the Trump administration or Brendan Carr… say they don’t like a segment that comes on a news programme. These are dark days for the content that appears on broadcast television,” Susca said.
Other media experts argue the issue is rooted in the leverage affiliate owners hold.
In the US, affiliate operators license programming from networks and pay carriage fees to do so. Affiliation typically brings more viewers, and thus, more advertising revenue, which is shared between networks and affiliates. Affiliates can preempt network programming, often for local news during severe weather events or political debates, for instance.
“They [TV station operators] can simply not run those programmes because they don’t really need the networks as much as they did at one time,” Tom Letizia, media consultant and head of political communications firm the Letizia Agency, told Al Jazeera, referring to the global trend of viewers finding their content on social media or streaming platforms.
“This is more about making a profit, and that’s really what this business is about. Let’s not forget that. I mean, ratings are the lifeblood of a TV station. If you don’t have ratings, you can’t charge your advertisers a premium cost for that spot.”
A lot of the advertising spend in smaller markets comes from local political parties, and if the politics do not align, those advertising dollars could be cut.
Nexstar said it stands by its decision to preempt Kimmel indefinitely and will “monitor the show as it returns to ABC”. The company denied political involvement or pressure from the Trump administration.
“The decision to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! was made unilaterally by the senior executive team at Nexstar, and they had no communication with the FCC or any government agency prior to making that decision,” a Nexstar spokesman told Al Jazeera.
Sinclair’s stance
Sinclair Broadcasting said on Monday that it does not plan to resume airing Kimmel’s show on its 38 ABC affiliates, opting instead for news programming.
The company, the second-largest US station operator after Nexstar, pushed Kimmel to apologise and “make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA”, Kirk’s conservative activist organisation.
Sinclair has long faced criticism for its conservative leanings. David Smith, the company’s executive chairman, donated $250,000 in 2024 to Kirk’s Turning Point USA through the David D Smith Family Foundation, whose listed address matches Sinclair’s headquarters.
In 2018, Sinclair required local anchors to read a script criticising “one-sided media coverage”, which Trump, then in his first term in office, praised. This came as the company pursued a $3.9bn merger with Tribune Media at the time, a deal that ultimately collapsed after Tribune pulled out.
“As the owners of the stations, they can make the choices over what their content is. Sinclair is a pretty right-wing organisation,” Susca said.
“When they buy a station in a local market, it tacks coverage to the right. They focus more on national politics.”
A 2019 study in the American Political Science Review found that Sinclair stations leaned more conservative than their competitors in the same markets.
“Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return,” Sinclair said in a statement. The company did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for further comment.
Disney’s decision
Disney’s move to reinstate Kimmel comes amid widespread public pressure. Celebrities and elected officials called for boycotts of Disney-owned platforms, including Disney+, ESPN and Hulu, in the wake of his suspension.
Google Trends data showed that searches to cancel those platforms spiked to their highest-ever levels following the suspension.
ABC directly owns only eight stations, including in New York and Houston. WABC in New York faced political backlash when leading mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani pulled out of a debate it was set to host, citing ABC’s suspension of Kimmel.
“Broadcast media is a business. Make no mistake that Kimmel being taken off the air was a business decision. Kimmel being put back on the air is a business decision,” Susca said.
Disney’s stock has fallen 2.78 percent over the past five days.
Laura Crompton, a media analyst and head of global communications agency Hopscotch’s Los Angeles office, said that Tuesday’s show could provide a ratings boost.
“For now, it seems they’ve chosen to put things right and show that they won’t cower to overreach or threats. But something tells me this isn’t over yet. If we want to find a silver lining, I suspect Kimmel’s comeback show tonight will smash audience numbers, even without the 25 percent of audiences disenfranchised by the ongoing standoff regionally. And realistically, I’m sure we’re all relieved we don’t have to take the moral high road and give up our Disney+ favorite shows now,” Crompton told Al Jazeera.
Disney did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
Free speech is protected by the 1st Amendment. This grants the late-night host the freedom to say whatever he thinks without fear of arrest or state-sanctioned violence. It does not necessarily guarantee that he will not be censured, or fired, if his remarks violate his employer’s rules or standards.
President Trump discovered this in 2015 when, citing inflammatory remarks the then-presidential candidate made about undocumented Mexican immigrants, NBC — the network that aired “The Apprentice” and Trump’s Miss Universe pageant — cut ties with him.
This is the most obvious explanation for Trump declaring war on television, despite it being the industry that, via “The Apprentice” and a deluge of coverage during his first presidential campaign, helped propel him to the presidency. Paybacks are a b— and this particular president thrives on them.
And it is definitely war. Trump has a long history of attacking various TV networks and personalities, including Kimmel. The regularity, name-checking and vitriol of these attacks far outstrip the anger many presidents have expressed toward the media, but they are in keeping with Trump’s general brand of “whataboutism” and victimization.
A brand that last year a majority of voters decided, in a free and fair election, represented their best interests.
What they did not vote for, because it was not part of Trump’s platform or promises, was the weaponization of his office in general, and the FCC in particular, to destroy the democracy of broadcast television.
First by a spurious suit against “60 Minutes,” which many believe was settled to allow the sale of Paramount Global to Skydance Media to go forward, then with CBS (owned by Paramount) canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and now with the suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Television is an industry that relies on a continual public voting system — people watch or they don’t watch, and the networks renew, cancel and tweak their programming accordingly. This is an oversimplification of a byzantine and often mysterious system that often involves the personal preferences of network executives and, increasingly, algorithms, but essentially the viewers are in charge — with their eyeballs and, occasionally, their outrage.
If, as the president claims, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” had been canceled due to its low ratings or suspended after Kimmel’s recent remarks caused longtime viewers to inundate ABC or the show’s sponsors with messages of outrage, fans would have been upset, but it would have been a mere blip in the news cycle.
But that is not what happened. Instead, a handful of conservative pundits who have made it their business to punish anyone who mentions slain influencer Charlie Kirk with anything but near-sanctification used a few ill-chosen but innocuous lines regarding the crime in Kimmel’s opening monologue Monday to call for swift and terrible retribution.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr answered the call. On the podcast “The Benny Show,” hosted by right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson, he threatened television affiliates with regulatory action if they did not take action against Kimmel.
He did so knowing that Nexstar, which owns many of those affiliates, was attempting to buy Tegna, in order to gain control of over 80% of U.S. television stations. That merger would require not just FCC approval but Carr’s willingness to eliminate the rule that prevents any media company from owning more than 39% of television stations.
Nexstar appeared to do precisely what Carr demanded of them. As did ABC/Disney, which decided that the loss of revenue from these affiliates, and the animosity of Trump and his supporters, posed a bigger threat than the potential fallout from pulling “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air. (And good luck getting the four-time Oscars host to emcee this ceremony again in the future.)
Perhaps it did. But given that “seize the media” and “silence comedians” are historical hallmarks of totalitarianism, the resulting three-day-and-counting news cycle, in which Carr, Trump and Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger have been regularly accused of dismantling democracy, has given anti-MAGA forces a new and legitimate rallying cry.
All while pushing broadcast television just a bit closer to the edge of extinction.
Nexstar denied that it benched Kimmel due to pressure from Carr.
“The decision to preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ was made unilaterally by the senior executive team at Nexstar, and they had no communication with the FCC or any government agency prior to making that decision,” Gary Weitman, Nexstar’s chief communications officer, said in a statement.
Trump’s obsession with broadcast networks and late-night hosts is perilous, and not just because it underlines his desire to attack culture with every means at his disposal (including those that may not be legal).
Certainly, it exposes his authoritarian bent, but it also reveals his anachronistic view of the world.
First, in these divisive times, having critics allows your supporters to coalesce around hating them. And second, broadcast television, including and especially late night, has been in its death throes for more than a decade.
As alarming, unacceptable and authoritarian as the attacks on “60 Minutes,” Colbert and Kimmel are, media freedom is not going to die on this particular hill for the simple reason that it is no longer the free media’s main residence.
Carr ordered his hit on Kimmel not from the comforts of “Fox & Friends” but on a podcast. Trump still delivers televised speeches, but most of his communications and policy decisions are delivered via social media.
The tsunami of corporate mergers involving television networks and streaming services have occurred not because these things are profitable tools of power but because, at least separately, they are not. YouTube is the most popular media platform in the country.
As Trump points out, Kimmel’s television ratings are very low — less than 2 million on average. Kimmel himself has said that he and other late-night shows get far more viewers from clips on social media than on television. If he and Colbert decide to take their voices straight to social media, well, good luck controlling that.
There is certainly much to fear in Trump’s brazen attacks on venerable institutions like “60 Minutes” and late-night television (though with conservatives like Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson siding, at least in principle, with Kimmel, things may not be going quite the way Carr or Trump planned), but as Kirk knew, one doesn’t need a television show to be an effective, influential voice.
Seen from one angle, Trump is most certainly attempting to quash what we have come to know as democracy. But from another, it’s a grudge-holding president kicking the industry that helped him achieve power when it’s already struggling for breath.
United States television host Jimmy Kimmel’s live show was pulled off the air by Disney-owned ABC after he made comments about conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot last week in what has been deemed by right-wingers in the US a political assassination.
But critics claim Kimmel’s removal is a violation of his free speech rights, which are enshrined under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
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On Thursday, hundreds of Kimmel fans gathered on the streets in Burbank, New York and Hollywood, protesting the removal of his show.
Here is a closer look at what happened and what the US Constitution says about free speech rights.
What happened to Jimmy Kimmel?
Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was shot and killed in front of a crowd of about 3,000 people on September 10 while he was speaking at a university event in Utah.
After a 33-hour manhunt, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was arrested on suspicion of killing Kirk. Robinson has since been charged with aggravated murder.
Some right-wing figures, affiliated with US President Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) wing, have described Robinson as “left-wing”.
On Monday, Kimmel said on his show: “The MAGA gang (is) 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 continued, criticising the response by Trump – who described Kirk as being “like a son” – to his death. “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish,” Kimmel said.
Following a backlash, broadcasters Nexstar and Sinclair said they would pull Kimmel’s late-night show from their affiliated stations.
Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), also said he had a strong case for taking legal action against Kimmel, Disney and ABC.
Anna Gomez, the only Democrat on the FCC, criticised Carr’s response in an interview with CNN. “This administration is increasingly using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression,” Gomez said.
The FCC has the authority to grant licences to broadcasters, including ABC and its affiliated stations.
Democratic critics have said that pulling his show off the air is an infringement of Kimmel’s right to free speech, as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
What does the First Amendment say?
The First Amendment protects free speech from government interference. It states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
In 1963, the US Supreme Court issued a key ruling that the government cannot create a “system of informal censorship” by putting pressure on private companies.
This was issued after a Rhode Island agency had threatened to prosecute book and magazine distributors for selling publications it considered objectionable.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that, in such situations, plaintiffs must demonstrate that the government’s actions exceeded allowable persuasion and directly caused them harm.
Was the removal of Kimmel’s show unconstitutional?
Experts say Kimmel’s show being pulled is unconstitutional since it infringes the free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Ronnie London, a general counsel with free speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told PolitiFact that Carr’s actions are “a classic case of unconstitutional jawboning”, which means improperly using government threats to pursue policy goals.
“The FCC has long held that ‘the public interest is best served by permitting free expression of views,’” the FCC says on its website.
“Rather than suppress speech, communications law and policy seek to encourage responsive ‘counter-speech’ from others. Following this principle ensures that the most diverse and opposing opinions will be expressed, even though some views or expressions may be highly offensive.”
How have people reacted to Kimmel’s removal?
Many Democrats, politicians, Hollywood stars and fellow talk-show hosts have stressed the importance of protecting free speech rights.
Former US President Barack Obama shared a series of articles and commentary on X on Friday, saying: “This commentary offers a clear, powerful statement of why freedom of speech is at the heart of democracy and must be defended, whether the speaker is Charlie Kirk or Jimmy Kimmel, MAGA supporters or MAGA opponents.”
This commentary offers a clear, powerful statement of why freedom of speech is at the heart of democracy and must be defended, whether the speaker is Charlie Kirk or Jimmy Kimmel, MAGA supporters or MAGA opponents.
In another post, Obama wrote: “This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent – and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.”
Former late-night host David Letterman said during an event in New York on Thursday: “I feel bad about this, because we all see where this is going, correct? It’s managed media. It’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous.”
Ken Martin, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement: “The state under Donald Trump has amassed a chilling record of restricting speech, extorting private companies, and dropping the full weight of the government censorship hammer on First Amendment rights.”
Democratic California Senator Adam Schiff posted on X on Thursday: “This administration is responsible for the most blatant attacks on the free press in American history. What will be left of the First Amendment?”
By contrast, the suspension of Kimmel’s show has drawn celebration from the political right.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC,” Trump continued, referring to late-night show hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.
Conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly wrote on X on Thursday: “I’m not sure who needs to hear this but Jimmy Kimmel got on the air and falsely stated as a fact that Charlie Kirk’s killer was MAGA, smearing an entire movement and Trump in particular with a vile disgusting lie.”
Disney-owned ABC has pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air indefinitely after the host caused controversy with remarks about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live will be preempted indefinitely,” an ABC spokesperson said, declining to share any further details.
Prosecutors have charged 22-year-old Tyler Robinson with Kirk’s murder. Robinson is accused of having shot and killed Kirk while the conservative activist was speaking at Utah Valley University on September 10. Robinson surrendered after a two-day manhunt.
Here’s what Kimmel said that led to outrage among conservatives, and what the ABC and others have said since:
What happened?
In his opening monologue on Monday, Kimmel, a vocal critic of US President Donald Trump, accused “the MAGA gang” of trying to “score political points” from Kirk’s murder, saying they were quick to blame the left before much was known about the shooter’s motives. MAGA, or “Make America Great Again”, is the right-wing political movement that forms Trump’s base.
“The MAGA gang (is) 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 on his show. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving,” he added.
He continued to criticise Trump’s reaction to the shooting.
“This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish,” Kimmel added.
The remarks angered conservatives and triggered pushback from the Trump administration.
Brian Kilmeade can keep his job after saying we should kill the homeless, but Jimmy Kimmel gets suspended for this? pic.twitter.com/now6OJqQ8r
“What he said on Monday was he suggested the suspected shooter of Charlie Kirk was a pro-Trump Republican,” Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro noted, adding that Kimmel spoke before authorities released text messages showing the suspected killer was actually politically opposed to Kirk.
The next day, Robinson appeared in court, charged with aggravated murder. A precise motive remains unclear, but in court documents, prosecutors have cited his relatives telling them that he had veered to the left politically in recent years, and thought Kirk was full of hate.
In text messages to his flatmate and romantic partner after Kirk’s assassination, Robinson said: “I had enough of his hatred.” Then, in a separate message, he added: “Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
Yet Kimmel returned to the topic on Tuesday night, where he accused Trump of “fanning the flames” by attacking people on the left. The Trump administration has said it will crack down on left-wing groups, whom it accuses of ratcheting up hate against conservatives. On Wednesday, Trump also said that he planned to designate the Antifa left-wing political movement a “terrorist” organisation.
Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday that he had a strong case for taking action against Kimmel, ABC and Disney. The FCC is responsible for granting licences to broadcasters such as the ABC and its affiliates.
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney,” Carr said. “They have a licence granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.”
According to a Bloomberg report, quoting sources, Kimmel had planned to address the backlash on his show on Wednesday and rehearsed it that morning.
Carr also urged media companies that own local television stations to “push back”.
Signs read Jimmy Kimmel Live at the El Capitan Entertainment Centre, where the show is recorded for broadcast, on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles [Daniel Cole/Reuters]
What was the fallout?
Nexstar, which owns several ABC affiliates, appeared to follow that call, announcing it would drop Jimmy Kimmel Live from its affiliates even before ABC itself confirmed the suspension.
The company said on Wednesday it would not air the show “for the foreseeable future, beginning with tonight’s show”.
Kimmel’s remarks about Kirk were “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse,” Nexstar added.
Carr expressed approval for Nexstar’s decision, thanking them “for doing the right thing”.
Nexstar, which describes itself as the country’s largest local television and media company, needs FCC approval for its $6.2bn deal to acquire smaller rival Tegna.
I want to thank Nexstar for doing the right thing.
Local broadcasters have an obligation to serve the public interest. While this may be an unprecedented decision, it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community… https://t.co/Px5boYbqNR
Trump described it as “great news for America” shortly after ABC revealed Kimmel had been suspended.
“The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” Trump said.
He then criticised two other late-night hosts, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, who he described as “two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible.”
JD Vance, the US vice president, earlier this week urged Americans to turn in fellow citizens who mocked the assassination.
In July, after CBS cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Trump said: “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
CBS said the ‘Late Show’ was dropped for financial reasons but its timing, three days after Colbert blasted a settlement between Trump and CBS parent company Paramount, led two senators to question whether politics were at play.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to @ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done…” – President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/Vhj6DQSssu
Jimmy Kimmel is among the most recognisable figures in US late-night television. He has hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC since 2003, making him one of the longest-serving talk-show hosts still on air.
Before breaking into television, Kimmel built his career in radio, working as a host in Seattle, Tampa, and Tucson before eventually moving to Los Angeles, where he transitioned into TV.
Over the years, Kimmel has become known for his monologues, celebrity interviews and viral comedy segments. He has also taken on a more political edge in recent years, frequently criticising Trump and weighing in on social debates.
Kimmel has also hosted Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which won him an Emmy, and big live events like the Oscars.
In recent years, according to reports, Kimmel has scaled back his workload, often taking summers off from the show. His current contract with ABC is set to expire in less than a year, raising questions about whether he will extend his run or step away after two decades on air.
When his contract extension was announced, he joked, “After two decades at ABC, I am now looking forward to three years of what they call ‘quiet quitting.’”
Jimmy Kimmel poses in the press room with the award for host of a game show for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire [File: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP]
How popular was his show?
Late-night viewership, like much of traditional television, has been declining as audiences migrate to streaming platforms and social media.
According to Nielsen, a United States media audience measurement firm, Jimmy Kimmel Live drew an average of 1.57 million viewers per episode during the broadcast season that ended in May.
During the same period, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert led the field, averaging 1.9 million viewers.
The US Television Database showed Jimmy Kimmel Live attracting about 1.1 million viewers per episode – a 0.35 percent rating, down 11 percent from the previous month – based on audience measurements for the period ending August 31, 2025.
US President Joe Biden speaks with host Jimmy Kimmel during the taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live, as Biden visits the city for the ninth Summit of the Americas, in Los Angeles [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]
Robert Redford looked like he walked out of the sea to become a Hollywood god. He was physically flawless. Pacific blue eyes, salt-bleached hair, a friendly surfer-boy squint. Born in Santa Monica to a milkman and a housewife, his first memory was of sliding off his mother’s lap at the Aero Theatre as a toddler and running toward the light, causing such a ruckus that the projectionist had to stop the film.
He definitely grew up to grab the movies’ attention. He wasn’t just telegenic but talented, although that wasn’t a requirement for stardom when he emerged in the late ’50s when the industry was scooping up hunks like him by the bucket for television and B-movies. All a male ingenue needed to do was smile and kiss the girl. It would have been so easy to do that a couple times and wind up doing it forever. You can understand why so many forgotten actors made that deal, without realizing that forever can lead to a fast retirement.
But if Redford had sensed at 2 years old that he was meant to be onscreen, by his 20s, he insisted he’d only do it on his own terms. At 27, with nearly zero name recognition, he horrified his then-agent by turning down a $10,000-a-week TV gig as a strait-laced psychiatrist to do a Mike Nichols theater production for just $110. His rejection of the easy money was an unusual choice, particularly for a cash-strapped father of two.
To appreciate Redford fully, we have to applaud not only the work he did but the simple, feel-good roles he rejected. He could have become a celebrity without breaking a sweat as the war hero, the jock, the husband, the cowboy, the American ideal made incarnate. Yet, he had the rare ability to sidestep what audiences thought we wanted from him to instead give us something we didn’t know we needed: selfish victors (“Downhill Racer”), self-destructive veterans (“The Great Waldo Pepper”) and tragic men who did everything right and still failed (2013’s “All Is Lost”).
In spirit, Redford never strayed far from the teen rebel he’d been — a truant who’d skipped school, stole booze and crashed race cars — and the radical artist he hurled himself into becoming by quitting everything traditional (the football team, his fraternity, college altogether) to move to Paris where he took up oil painting and marched against the Soviets. He might have excelled at the sleazy roles that made Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino famous. On the outside, he knew they didn’t fit, either.
Sometimes Redford said no even when I wish he’d have said yes. Imagine if he’d agreed to face off against Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Instead, he told Nichols he’d rather tangle with Anne Bancroft in “The Graduate,” only to be rejected as too handsome for the role. “Can you honestly imagine a guy like you having difficulty seducing a woman?” Nichols told him.
Instead, Redford used his all-American good looks to make us question our flattering image of ourselves. In the 1974 adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” he was the first person you’d think of to play the title role because he fully understood the point of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book — how it felt to represent our country’s whole image of success while knowing it’s a phony put-on. I imagine him making a devil’s bargain with his face, vowing that he won’t hide behind goofy accents and stunt wigs the way other too-handsome oddballs do, if he’s allowed to use his appeal like a Trojan horse.
If there’s one thing that unites his roles, from 1966’s “The Chase” to “Lions for Lambs,” it’s his willingness to give the screen his full charisma — to let audiences stare at him for the whole running time of a movie — as long as we’ll agree to ask what’s lurking in his underbelly. Most often, we’ll find frustrated idealism just at the moment it starts to sour.
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The films of the 1960s and ’70s that made Redford an icon mostly cleave into two categories: scamps and truth-seekers. (The latter can overlap with suckers and stooges.) His antihero crooks in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Sting” captured something in our national id, our not-so-secret belief that it’s OK to break a few rules to get ahead — that we can forgive a sin if we like the sinner. I like how those movies give you a guilty little tingle about rooting for Redford even when it means scratching off a couple of the Ten Commandments. (Thou shalt not steal unless you’re Robert Redford, who got away with it all the way through 2018’s “The Old Man and the Gun.”)
Lately, the Redford roles I’ve been thinking about are the ones where his all-American appeal makes us examine all of America, good and bad. The two that instantly jump to mind are his pair of political thrillers: “Three Days of the Condor,” in which he plays a CIA agent on the run from his own co-workers, and “All the President’s Men,” in which he doggedly uncovers the Watergate scandal. Both films believe in the power of getting the truth out to the press; neither is so naive as to think the truth alone will save the day.
But let’s not overlook “The Candidate,” a movie that has Redford as underqualified political scion Bill McKay, pressed to run for governor of California. “He’s not going to get his ass kicked — he’s cute,” his father (Melvyn Douglas) says. Meanwhile, his own campaign team cares more about the length of his sideburns than ideas in his head. Released in 1972, five years into former actor Ronald Reagan’s own governorship, the movie hammers home that superficiality might be democracy’s downfall — and the stakes are bigger than who is Hollywood‘s latest heartthrob.
Vice President Dan Quayle once said “The Candidate” inspired him, triggering its screenwriter Jeremy Larner to dash this off in an op-ed: “Mr. Quayle, this was not a how-to movie, it was a watch-out movie. And you are what we should be watching out for!”
In his later years, Redford became a filmmaker himself and I can picture him pulling Brad Pitt aside on the set of “A River Runs Through It” to whisper: You don’t have to stay in that pretty–boy box. Feel free to get weird. As an actor and director, Redford continued to create characters who uncovered our our hidden rot, whether in our purported national pastime, baseball (“The Natural”), or in our actual one, watching television (“Quiz Show”). His turn in “Indecent Proposal” as the wealthy man who offers to rent his employee’s wife lives on as shorthand for tycoons who assume they can buy whatever, and whoever, they want. When he eventually signed on for a superhero film, it was, fittingly, alongside Captain America, that upright paragon of virtue — and Redford played the villain.
What Quayle missed about “The Candidate” is that when it comes to a Robert Redford movie, truth is never as plain as what your eyes can see. There’s always a deeper level and there’s no guarantee that justice would win. In fact, I’d argue in Redford’s films, it rarely does.
There were two questions the 77th Emmy Awards, held Sunday night at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, had to answer, other than who would win what. (It’s an honor just to be nominated.)
One was how the show, a glittery evening devoted to the most popular of popular arts, would play against a world gone mad. The other, not distinct from the first, was how first-time host Nate Bargatze would do.
The ceremony is hosted by a round robin of the major networks, and this year the honor fell to CBS, whose corporate overlord, Paramount, has come to represent capitulation to the Trump administration, settling a baseless lawsuit in what is widely viewed as a payoff to grease the wheels of its merger with Skydance and promising to eliminate its DEI protocols. Executive interference in the news department amid an apparent rightward turn has led to the resignations of “60 Minutes” producer Bill Owens and CBS News President and CEO Wendy McMahon. And there’s the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show,” the timing of which some have found suspicious.
But if your goal was to avoid insulted celebrities, social media outrage or petulant notes from the White House, you could have done no better than to hire Bargatze, a clean, calm, classical, noncontroversial, nonpolitical, very funny, very successful comedian. Bargatze, who has been in comedy since 2002, saw his career explode over the last few years; his appeal is not so much mainstream, which is to say soft-edged, as it is broad — something for everybody.
The show opened quite brilliantly — perhaps confusingly, if you had missed Bargatze’s “Washington’s Dream” sketches on “Saturday Night Live” on which the routine was closely modeled, including the presence of Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson — with the host as Philo T. Farnsworth, “the inventor of television,” foreseeing the medium’s less than sensible future. First presenter Stephen Colbert followed immediately to a standing ovation and chants of his name. “While I have your attention, is anyone hiring? I have 200 very qualified candidates with me tonight who will be available in June.”
Emmys host Nate Bargatze, right, and Bowen Yang appear in an opening sketch at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Then the host introduced his much publicized, one would say quintessentially Bargatzean, gimmick. To keep acceptance speeches short, he would donate $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America; $1,000 per second would be deducted for anyone going over the allotted 45 seconds. Money would be added to the pot for anyone running short. (J.B. Smoove, a former Boys Club member, was a sort of co-sponsor, in the audience with a young boy and girl.) This efficiency made professional sense, though it had the potential to put a lid on what is usually the most interesting, unruly, moving, unpredictable part of the show. (If anyone had thought for a second, it also spelled trouble: Try talking for what you imagine is 45 seconds. You will be wrong.)
As it happened, the state of the world was addressed, sidelong and directly. Presenter Julianne Nicholson said of living in a post-apocalyptic bunker in “Paradise,” “compared to headlines that’s positively feel-good TV.” Jeff Hiller, winning supporting actor in a comedy series for “Somebody Somewhere,” thanked the Duplass brothers “for writing a show of connection and love in this time when compassion is seen as a weakness.” “Last Week Tonight” senior writer Daniel O’Brien dedicated their second award to “all writers of political comedy while that is still a type of show that is allowed to exist.” And in a generational echo of their “Hacks” characters, fourth-time winner Jean Smart (who has won seven Emmys overall) ended her acceptance speech saying, “Let’s be good to each other, just be good to each other,” while co-star and first-time winner Hannah Einbinder, finished with, “I just want to say: Go Birds, f— ICE, and free Palestine.” Going way over the 45-second limit, she promised to pay the difference on the tote board.
Hannah Einbinder accepts the award for supporting actress in a comedy series for “Hacks” during the show at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
After Einbeinder, the most direct acknowledgment of current bad events came from Academy Chair and CEO Cris Abrego, speaking of the Governors Award given the week before to the Corp. for Public Broadcasting. In a highly quotable speech, he noted how “Congress had voted to defund it and silence yet another cultural institution.” He continued, “In a time when division dominates the headlines, storytelling still has the power to unite us … In times of cultural regression [it reminds] us what’s at stake and what can still be achieved,” and he rattled off a number of much loved shows that challenged the status quo. “In a moment like this, neutrality is not enough. … Culture does not come from the top down, it rises from the bottom up. … Let’s make sure that culture is not a platform for the privileged but a public good for all.” The stars in the audience nodded approvingly.
There were also some pure delights among the bedrock of desultory scripted banter and unimpressive tributes to old shows (“Law & Order: SUV,” “The Golden Girls”). Reunited “Everybody Loves Raymond” co-stars Ray Romano and Brad Garrett, presenting the award for comedy series, recaptured the essence of their television brotherhood. Jennifer Coolidge, presenting the award for lead supporting actress in a comedy, sounded like she’d walked in from a Christopher Guest film. “Between us, I was actually hoping to be nominated for you tonight for my work on this season of ‘The Pitt.’ I played a horny grandmother having a colonoscopy during a power outage and I had to play a lot of levels. I even had to do my own prep.” She went on, after a while, to tell the nominees that winning “is not all it’s cracked up to be. It’s really not… I thought I had gotten really close with my fellow nominees especially after I won but I’m pretty sure they removed me from the group chat.”
The inevitable losses incurred by Bargatze’s charity gimmick provided a sort of running joke at the host’s expense, which he managed quite well, while some winners made a game of trying to put money back on the board. But the longer it went on, the more pressure it put on the winners to be short. Eventually, the show found its natural level, as winners said what they needed to, or much of it, and the count dropped tens of thousands of dollars past zero. For everyone but the bean counters, the least important thing about an awards show is it running on time; in any case, it was only a few minutes over.
And, as one might have expected, Bargatze — who made it through the three hours in a way that served the event and his own down-home ethos — paid the originally promised $100,000 and added a $250,000 tip.
The US television network has been building its own news division separate from NBC News, and will also remove NBC’s peacock symbol from its new logo.
The MSNBC news network has said it will change its name to become My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW for short, as part of its corporate divorce from NBC.
The TV network, which appeals to liberal audiences with a stable of personalities including Rachel Maddow, Ari Melber and Nicolle Wallace, made the announcement on Monday. It has been building its own separate news division from NBC News and will also remove NBC’s peacock symbol from its logo as part of the change, which will take effect later this year.
The name change was ordered by NBC Universal, which last November spun off cable networks USA, CNBC, MSNBC, E! Entertainment, Oxygen and the Golf Channel into its own company, called Versant. None of the other networks are changing their names.
MSNBC got its name upon its formation in 1996, as a partnership between Microsoft and NBC. Even back then, it was a puzzling moniker to many. But it stuck, even after the NBC partnership with Microsoft that produced it ended.
Versant CEO Mark Lazarus said in the initial days of the spinoff that the name MSNBC would stay, making Monday’s announcement an unexpected about-face.
Name changes always carry an inherent risk, and MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler said that for employees, it is hard to imagine the network under a different name. “This was not a decision that was made quickly or without significant debate,” she said in a memo to staff.
“During this time of transition, NBC Universal decided that our brand requires a new, separate identity,” she said. “This decision now allows us to set our own course and assert our independence as we continue to build our own modern newsgathering organization.”
Kutler said the network’s editorial direction will remain the same. “While our name will be changing, who we are and what we do will not,” she said.
Still, it’s noteworthy that the business channel CNBC is leaving “NBC” in its name. MSNBC argues that CNBC has always maintained a greater separation and, with its business focus, is less likely to cover many of the same topics.
The affiliation between a news division that stresses objectivity and one that doesn’t hide its liberal bent has long caused tension. US President Donald Trump refers to the cable network as “MSDNC,” for Democratic National Committee.
Maddow, in a recent episode of Pivot, noted that MSNBC will no longer have to compete with NBC News programmes for reporting product from out in the field — meaning it will no longer get the “leftovers”.
“In this case, we can apply our own instincts, our own queries, our own priorities, to getting stuff that we need from reporters and correspondents,” Maddow said. “And so it’s gonna be better.”
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough revealed the network’s new logo on his show Monday morning. “It looks very sporty,” he said.
England’s dramatic Euro 2025 final victory against Spain was the most watched television moment of the year so far, with a peak live audience of 12.2 million across all BBC platforms.
Sarina Wiegman’s side retained their title by defeating the world champions on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Basel, Switzerland.
Chloe Kelly, who had scored the extra-time winner in the Euro 2022 final against Germany at Wembley, converted the decisive spot-kick to seal victory, while England keeper Hannah Hampton saved two Spain penalties.
The Lionesses’ victory peaked at 11.6 million on BBC One – 59% of all TV audiences – in a match also shown on ITV.
There were an additional 4.2 million streams of the match on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app, while BBC Sport’s live page had 11.4 million views.
Overall, the BBC’s TV coverage of the tournament reached an audience of 22.1 million and there were 231 million total views across BBC Sport’s social media accounts.
“This final was a landmark moment in sporting history,” said BBC director of sport Alex Kay-Jelski.
“The kind of moment people will remember exactly where they were when they watched it.
“The incredible Lionesses took us on an emotional rollercoaster, and millions were hooked on BBC coverage from start to finish – from live streaming post-match analysis to millions following our live page and younger audiences in huge numbers on social media.”
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is going off air in May 2026, a decision hailed by United States President Stephen Colbert, a frequent target of the comedian.
The announcement by CBS on Thursday that it will cancel the show comes against the backdrop of a looming merger between its parent company Paramount with Skydance Media.
It also comes only days after the comedian called out Paramount for its $16m settlement with Trump. Trump, in a lawsuit, had alleged that 60 Minutes, the flagship news magazine at CBS, doctored an interview during the 2024 presidential campaign with his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris.
Colbert, a longtime critic of the president, called the network’s decision to settle “a big fat bribe” because of the pending merger, which needs approval from the Department of Justice and is valued at $8bn.
“I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired,” the president wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
“His talent was even less than his ratings,” he added, before going after Colbert’s other two rivals, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, saying that they are next, without evidence.
Contrary to the president’s claims, Colbert is performing well — his is the highest rated show in late night television — averaging 2.42 million viewers in the second quarter of 2025.
The cancellation also ended the tenure of the long-running late-night franchise, replacing the Pat Sajak show in 1993, and was first hosted by David Letterman.
US President Joe Biden, former US Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton participate in a discussion moderated by Stephen Colbert, host of CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”, during a campaign fundraising event at Radio City Music Hall in New York, US, March 28, 2024. [Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters]
Financial pressures
“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,” CBS said in a statement provided to Al Jazeera.
CBS previously cancelled another late-night show, After Midnight, hosted by comedian Taylor Tomlinson, after a two-year run.
Experts believe there is merit to that argument.
“The reality is the business of late night is not going anywhere that justifies the enormous salaries that this talent is paid and the costs that these productions have. Ultimately, if you’re producing late night, it is mostly going to be consumed on YouTube,” Andrew Rosen, founder of the media strategy firm Parqor, told Al Jazeera.
The show reportedly costs $100m to produce annually and loses about $40m in revenue, according to reporting from the outlet Puck.
“They’ve [CBS] just maxed out the model for as long as they can and for a variety of reasons that I think probably have more to do with the economics of the merger with Skydance than they do with Trump,” Rosen added, referring to Paramount’s efforts to cut costs as it focuses to merge with Skydance.
On Wall Street, Paramount’s stock is up 0.2 percent as of 1pm in New York (17:00 GMT).
Political timing
The announcement of the cancellation of the show comes as the Department of Justice considers the merger. Economics apart, the move is also being seen as political in nature.
“The timing of it raises a lot of questions. To me, it is the politics of it, especially for broadcast legacy media,” Rodney Benson, professor, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, told Al Jazeera.
The Trump White House has gone after news organisations and their parent media companies for what the administration says is coverage that is partisan in nature, including the $16m lawsuit that Paramount settled with Trump. In December, Disney-owned ABC News settled a defamation suit with a $15m donation to Trump’s library and issued a public apology over inaccurate on-air comments. There have also been cuts to public media and use of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to threaten the future of their broadcasting licenses.
“Broadcast networks are regulated by the FCC. They have to have their licences renewed, and they can be, the government can go after them for what they define as news distortion. They’ve already raised that,” Benson added.
Democrats have called out the network for the cancellation of the show and alleged political reasoning.
“CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump — a deal that looks like bribery,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said on social media platform X formerly known as Twitter.
“Long-term financial trends could underlie this, but the timing suggests that if it was just financial, then they would have wanted to wait a bit, the optics are just horrible, so there must have been some pressure,” Benson added.
Skydance, the company set to acquire Paramount, is led by David Ellison, who is the son of Larry Ellison, the Oracle CEO and a close Trump ally.
In April, David Ellison attended a UFC fight with the president alongside former confidante Elon Musk, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy and Ted Cruz, among others.
Skydance is also reportedly in talks to acquire The Free Press, an outlet that has been seen as right-wing and friendly to the president. In the last few days, it has published pieces called “Happy Independence Day, NPR” when US Congress voted to scrap public media funding and accusing NPR of liberal bias; and another “The Epstein Files Are Just a Sideshow” as the president rails against releasing files related to deceased sex offender Jeffery Epstein, who Trump has been pictured with.
Severance stood out from the competition earning 27 Emmy nods, while HBO’s dark Batman spinoff, The Penguin, secured 24 nominations.
The nominees for the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards have been announced.
Actors Harvey Guillen and Brenda Song revealed the nominations at the Television Academy’s Wolf Theater in Los Angeles, California, on Tuesday in advance of the 77th annual ceremony.
Severance stood out from the competition, earning 27 Emmy nods, while Apple TV’s The Studio topped the comedy categories with 23 nominations. HBO’s dark Batman spinoff, The Penguin, secured 24 nominations.
Abbott Elementary The Bear Hacks Nobody Wants This Only Murders in the Building Shrinking The Studio What We Do in the Shadows pic.twitter.com/a98KPPARH8
Javier Bardem, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Bill Camp, Presumed Innocent
Owen Cooper, Adolescence
Rob Delaney, Dying for Sex
Peter Sarsgaard, Presumed Innocent
Ashley Walters, Adolescence
Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez, centre, and Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez, right, in a scene from Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story [Miles Crist/Netflix]
Supporting actor, comedy series
Ike Barinholtz, The Studio
Colman Domingo, The Four Seasons
Harrison Ford, Shrinking
Jeff Hiller, Somebody Somewhere
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear
Michael Urie, Shrinking
Bowen Yang, Saturday Night Live
Ike Barinholtz, from left, Kathryn Hahn, Chase Sui Wonders and Seth Rogen in a scene from The Studio [Apple TV+ via AP]
Supporting actress, comedy series
Liza Colon-Zayas, The Bear
Hannah Einbinder, Hacks
Kathryn Hahn, The Studio
Janelle James, Abbott Elementary
Catherine O’Hara, The Studio
Sheryl Lee Ralph, Abbott Elementary
Jessica Williams, Shrinking
Congratulations to the cast and crew of The Bear for their 13 Emmy® nominations. pic.twitter.com/Kqo30C1mb0
Talk about hosts with the most! Congratulations to both Ken Jennings and Colin Jost, and the whole Jeopardy! team on the 140th Emmy® nominations for the show! Thank you @TelevisionAcad#Jeopardy! #Emmyspic.twitter.com/FByCOGKJQn
The 77th Emmys nominations have been announced and given the state of just about everything, it’s easy not to care.
Our president is dismantling large portions of the federal government and offering new tax breaks to folks like those portrayed behaving badly in “The White Lotus.” Flash floods, a potential measles epidemic and ongoing bloody wars in Ukraine and the Middle East seem to echo the pre-apocalyptic drumbeats from “Paradise.”
Masked federal ICE agents, who look like they could be part of the Federal Disaster Response Agency from “The Last of Us,” roam the streets of Los Angeles, arresting people who might not have the right documentation and taking them to detention centers that appear to be right out of “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Television itself is in a state of free fall, with streaming prices rising even as the number of new series sharply declines, and though “The Studio” makes it seem as if L.A. remains the geographic center of the entertainment business, the city’s increasingly empty soundstages and unemployed production workers tell another story.
So given that many Americans might very well agree to work for “Severance’s” sinister Lumon Industries if it guaranteed a decent paycheck and healthcare benefits, it seems impossible to gin up excitement about how many nominations HBO/Max, Netflix, Apple TV+ or any other entertainment conglomeration with an obscenely overpaid CEO received this year.
Except, you know, Jeff Hiller, whose amazing midlife breakout role as nakedly sincere Joel in “Somebody Somewhere” finally got the nomination it deserved. Or Jenny Slate, who deftly spun plates of hilarity, humanity and pathos in “Dying for Sex.” Stripped of his good looks and seductive accent, Colin Farrell still managed to mesmerize in “The Penguin,” which not only resuscitated an exhausted genre but took it to a new level of storytelling.
From its 15-year-old star to its risky single-shot direction and unsettlingly resonant themes, the limited series “Adolescence” was as close to perfection as a piece of television gets. Jean Smart (“Hacks”), Kathy Bates (“Matlock”) and Catherine O’Hara (“The Studio”) continue to prove the absurdity of Hollywood’s traditional sidelining of women over 40, while “Abbott Elementary” reminds us just how good a traditional broadcast comedy can be.
Artistic awards of any kind are inevitably absurd — how does one relatively small group of people decide what is “best” — and given the amount and diversity of television, the Emmys are more absurd than most.
According to Television Academy Chairman Cris Abrego, this was a record-breaking year in terms of voter turnout. Even so, it’s difficult to see categories dominated by one or two shows and not wonder how much TV the voting members managed to watch. If it were just a question of judging shows on submitted episodes, there would be no need for pricey FYC campaigns after all.
But the Emmys matter because television is art. And art matters. Even if it involves complaining about how ridiculous this year’s choices are, the nominations give us an opportunity to talk about art — what touched/impressed/moved/changed us, or not. What comforted us, disturbed us, made us laugh or look at things just a little differently and why.
That’s important, especially now when so much is in a constant state of upheaval, when everywhere we look people are questioning the future of democracy, civilization, the planet. Television can be used as an escape from “real life” — and heaven knows we could all use some of that — but it’s existence, and our appreciation of it, is very much part of that real life.
Art is a hallmark of civilization. It’s proof that we have evolved beyond the basic instincts of survival, that we understand the necessity of stories, images and music, and that we encourage their creation and appreciate the existence of even those things we personally do not perceive as great or even good.
Even as Peak TV gives way to the age of contraction, television remains one of our most universally experienced art forms. At its most basic level, it’s about curiosity — we watch television, whether it’s “Slow Horses,” “The Pitt” or “The Traitors” — to see what other people are up to, what they feel, say and do in a wide variety of circumstances and if we would feel, say or do something similar.
So yeah, the Emmys are not as important as ICE raids, flash floods, children dying of measles or the vanishing social safety net. When climate change has made the world so hot that the World Cup is under threat, it’s easy to consider conversations about why “Squid Game” or the final season of “The Handmaid’s Tale” received no major nominations, or how academy members could nominate Martin Short and not Steve Martin for “Only Murders in the Building,” a complete waste of time.
Until you consider the alternative. Because the day we stop celebrating and arguing about art is the day we’ll know the bastards have won.
If you’re jetting abroad soon, you’ll likely know that watching Love Island overseas can be tricky.
That’s because streaming ITVX outside the UK is blocked -luckily, there’s a simple (and legal) solution.
You can use a VPN, such as ExpressVPN or NordVPN, to stream ITV content from overseas.
Read on to learn how to use a VPN to access Love Island abroad.
How to watch Love Island 2025 abroad with a VPN
The whole process for watching Love Island 2025 while you’re outside the UK is actually pretty simple.
VPNs are online tools that can simulate a UK-based IP address, allowing you to bypass content restrictions.
Here’s what you need to do:
Download a VPN like ExpressVPN or NordVPN to whatever device you use to stream content.
Load the VPN app on that device, and select a UK server.
Head to ITVX, and search for Love Island. Play, sit back and enjoy!
ITVX is where you can catch up on episodes that are already live.
You can also use a VPN to watch Love Island live on ITV2, but remember: you need to have a TV license to watch any live UK television from overseas.
When does Love Island Series 12 2025 start?
It’s already started! Did you not get the memo?
Luckily, you haven’t missed much.
The latest series of Love Island kicked off on Monday 9th June at 9pm, so it’s barely been a week.
As ever, it’s available to watch on ITV2.
How many Love Islands will there be in 2025?
Unless there’s a surprise instalment later this year (unlikely), there will almost definitely be two seasons of Love Islands this year.
Back at the beginning of 2025, we had the All Stars edition of Love Island, bringing some sunny fun to the gloom of the New Year.
And now we’ve got the Series 12 Summer Edition to look forward to. Yay!
If we hear any more news about forthcoming series, we’ll keep you posted on this page.
Can you watch Love Island in the US?
We’re thrilled that Love Island has been a hit across the pond, and American fans can access this year’s season using a VPN, as outlined earlier in this article.
Saturday afternoon out west and evening back east, as citizens faced off against ICE agents in the streets of Los Angeles, “Good Night, and Good Luck,” George Clooney’s 2005 dramatic film tribute to CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, became a Major Television Event, broadcast live from Manhattan’s Winter Garden Theater, by CNN and Max. That it was made available free to anyone with an internet connection, via the CNN website, was a nice gesture to theater fans, Clooney stans and anyone interested to see how a movie about television translates into a play about television.
The broadcast is being ballyhooed as historic, the first time a play has been aired live from Broadway. And while there is no arguing with that fact, performances of plays have been recorded onstage before, and are being so now. It’s a great practice; I wish it were done more often. At the moment, PBS.org is streaming recent productions of Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate!,” the Bob Dylan-scored “Girl From the North Country,” David Henry Hwang‘s “Yellow Face” and the Pulitzer Prize-winning mental health rock musical “Next to Normal.” Britain’s National Theater at Home subscription service offers a wealth of classical and modern plays, including Andrew Scott’s one-man “Vanya,” as hot a ticket in New York this spring as Clooney’s play. And the archives run deep; that a trip to YouTube can deliver you Richard Burton’s “Hamlet” or “Sunday in the Park With George” with Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters is a gift not to be overlooked.
Clooney, with co-star Anthony Edwards, had earlier been behind a live broadcast of “Ambush,” the fourth season opener of “ER” as a throwback to the particular seat-of-your-pants, walking-on-a-wire energy of 1950s television. (It was performed twice, once for the East and once for the West Coast.) That it earned an audience of 42.71 million, breaking a couple of records in the bargain, suggests that, from a commercial perspective, it was not at all a bad idea. (Reviews were mixed, but critics don’t know everything.)
Like that episode, the “live” element of Saturday’s broadcast was essentially a stunt, though one that ensured, at least, that no post-production editing has been applied, and that if anyone blew a line, or the house was invaded by heckling MAGA hats, or simply disrupted by audience members who regarded the enormous price they paid for a ticket as a license to chatter through the show, it would presumably have been part of the broadcast. None of that happened — but, it could have! (Clooney did stumble over “simple,” but that’s all I caught.) And, it offered the groundlings at home the chance to see a much-discussed, well-reviewed production only a relatively few were able to see in person — which I applaud on principal and enjoyed in practice — and which will very probably not come again, not counting the next day’s final performance.
Glenn Fleshler, left, plays Fred Friendly in the stage production, a role that George Clooney performed in the film version of “Good Night, and Good Luck.”
(Emilio Madrid)
The film, directed by Clooney and co-written with Grant Heslov (who co-wrote the stage version as well), featured the actor as producer and ally Fred W. Friendly to David Strathairn’s memorable Murrow. Here, a more aggressive Clooney takes the Murrow role, while Glenn Fleshler plays Friendly. Released during the second term of the Bush administration, the movie was a meditation on the state of things through the prism of 1954 (and a famous framing speech from 1958 about the possibilities and potential failures of television), the fear-fueled demagoguery of Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and Murrow’s determination to take him on. (The 1954 “See It Now” episode, “A Report on Sen. Joseph McCarthy,” helped bring about his end.) As in the film, McCarthy is represented entirely through projected film clips, echoing the way that Murrow impeached the senator with his own words.
It’s a combination of political and backstage drama — with a soupcon of office romance, represented by the secretly married Wershbas (Ilana Glazer and Carter Hudson) — even more hermetically set within the confines of CBS News than was the film. It felt relevant in 2005, before the influence of network news was dissolved in the acid of the internet and an administration began assaulting the legitimate press with threats and lawsuits; but the play’s discussions of habeas corpus, due process, self-censoring media and the both-sides-ism that seems increasingly to afflict modern media feel queasily contemporary. “I simply cannot accept that there are, on every story two equal and logical sides to an argument,” says Clooney’s Murrow to his boss, William F. Paley (an excellent Paul Gross, from the great “Slings & Arrows”). As was shown here, Murrow offered McCarthy equal time on “See It Now” — which he hosted alongside the celebrity-focused “Person to Person,” represented by an interview with Liberace — but it proved largely a rope for the senator to hang himself.
Though modern stage productions, with their computer-controlled modular parts, can replicate the rhythms and scene changes of a film, there are obvious differences between a movie, where camera angles and editing drive the story. It’s an illusion of life, stitched together from bits and pieces. A stage play proceeds in real time and offers a single view (differing, of course, depending on where one sits), within which you direct your attention as you will. What illusions it offers are, as it were, stage magic. It’s choreographed, like a dance, which actors must repeat night after night, putting feeling into lines they may speak to one another, but send out to the farthest corners of the theater.
Clooney, whose furrowed brow is a good match for Murrow’s, did not attempt to imitate him, or perhaps did within the limits of theatrical delivery; he was serious and effective in the role if not achieving the quiet perfection of Strathairn’s performance. Scott Pask‘s set was an ingenious moving modular arrangement of office spaces, backed by a control room, highlighted or darkened as needs be; a raised platform stage left supported the jazz group and vocalist, which, as in the movie, performed songs whose lyrics at times commented slyly on the action. Though television squashed the production into two dimensions, the broadcast nevertheless felt real and exciting; director David Comer let the camera play on the players, rather than trying for a cinematic effect through an excess of close-ups and cutaways.
While the play generally followed the lines of the film, there was some rearrangement of scenes, reassignment of dialogue — it was a streamlined cast — and interpolations to make a point, or more directly pitch to 2025. New York news anchor Don Hollenbeck (Clark Gregg, very moving in the only role with an emotional arc) described feeling “hijacked … as if all the reasonable people went to Europe and left us behind,” getting a big reaction. One character wondered about opening “the door to news with a dash of commentary — what happens when it isn’t Edward R. Murrow minding the store?” A rapid montage of clips tracking the decay of TV news and politics — including Obama’s tan suit kerfuffle and the barring of AP for not bowing to Trump’s Gulf of America edit and ending with Elon Musk’s notorious straight-arm gesture, looking like nothing so much as a Nazi salute — was flown into Clooney’s final speech.
Last but not least, there is the audience, your stand-ins at the Winter Garden Theatre, which laughed at the jokes and applauded the big speeches, transcribed from Murrow’s own. And then, the curtain call, to remind you that whatever came before, the actors are fine, drinking in your appreciation and sending you out happy and exhilarated and perhaps full of hope.
A CNN roundtable followed to bring you back to Earth.
In a significant retrenchment, media mogul Byron Allen has retained investment banking firm Moelis & Co. to sell his network-affiliate television stations after spending more than $1 billion to scoop up outlets in smaller markets.
The Allen Media Group announced the news Monday morning. It owns nearly two dozen stations, including in Northern California near Redding, as well as Honolulu; Flint, Mich.; Madison, Wis.; and Tupelo, Miss.
The company needs to pay down debt, Allen said in a statement.
Allen’s firm declined to provide details on its finances.
The Los Angeles firm has spent big bucks during the last six years buying stations with a goal of becoming the largest independent television operator in the U.S. Many of Allen’s stations have standing in their markets with programming from one of the Big Four broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.
“We have received numerous inquiries and written offers for most of our television stations and now is the time to explore getting a return on this phenomenal investment,” Allen, chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. “We are going to use this opportunity to take a serious look at the offers, and the sale proceeds will be used to significantly reduce our debt.”
The Los Angeles entrepreneur and former stand-up comedian had been steadily expanding his empire for more than a decade.
However, the television advertising market has become increasingly challenged in recent years as media buyers shift their budgets to digital platforms where they are more likely to find younger consumers. The television advertising market has become more strained with the addition of streaming services, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Paramount+ competing with legacy stations for dollars.
A decade ago, Allen brought a high-profile $20-billion lawsuit against two of the nation’s largest pay-TV distributors, Comcast and Charter Communications, alleging that racism was the reason his small TV channels were not being carried on those services.
The case ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court and was legally significant because it relied on the historic Civil Rights Act of 1866, which was enacted a year after the Civil War ended and mandated that Black citizens “shall have the same right … to make and enforce contracts … as is enjoyed by white citizens.”
But the Supreme Court struck down many of Allen’s arguments. In a 9-0 decision in March 2020, the high court said it was not enough for a civil rights plaintiff to assert that his race was one of several factors that motivated a company to refuse to do business with him. Instead, the person must show race was the crucial and deciding factor.
Last month, CBS picked up his show “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen” to run at 12:35 a.m.
The lawsuit came three days after a similar case by NPR, which also saw its funds cut.
PBS has filed a lawsuit against United States President Donald Trump and other administration officials to block his order stripping federal funding from the 330-station public television system, three days after NPR did the same for its radio network.
In its lawsuit filed on Friday, PBS relied on similar arguments, saying Trump was overstepping his authority and engaging in “viewpoint discrimination” because of his claim that PBS’s news coverage is biassed against conservatives.
“PBS disputes those charged assertions in the strongest possible terms,” lawyer Z W Julius Chen wrote in the suit, filed in US District Court in Washington, DC. “But regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS’s programming, including by attempting to defund PBS.”
It was the latest of many legal actions taken against the administration for its moves, including several by media organisations impacted by Trump’s orders.
PBS was joined as a plaintiff by one of its stations, Lakeland PBS, which serves rural areas in northern and central Minnesota. Trump’s order is an “existential threat” to the station, the lawsuit said.
A PBS spokesman said that “after careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television’s editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations”.
‘Lawful authority’
Through an executive order earlier this month, Trump told the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal agencies to stop funding the two systems. Through the corporation alone, PBS is receiving $325m this year, most of which goes directly to individual stations.
The White House deputy press secretary, Harrison Fields, said the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime.
“Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS,” Fields said. “The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.”
PBS, which makes much of the programming used by the stations, said it gets 22 percent of its revenue directly from the feds. Sixty-one percent of PBS’s budget is funded through individual station dues, and the stations raise the bulk of that money through the government.
Interrupting ‘a rich tapestry of programming’
Trump’s order “would have profound impacts on the ability of PBS and PBS member stations to provide a rich tapestry of programming to all Americans”, Chen wrote.
PBS said the US Department of Education has cancelled a $78m grant to the system for educational programming, used to make children’s shows like Sesame Street, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Reading Rainbow.
For Minnesota residents, the order threatens the Lakeland Learns education programme and Lakeland News, described in the lawsuit as the only television programme in the region providing local news, weather and sports.
Besides Trump, the lawsuit names other administration officials as defendants, including Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. PBS says its technology is used as a backup for the nationwide wireless emergency alert system.
