Back on September 15th, 2025, the pop culture world was shaken after ABC pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live” off the airwaves due to jokes referencing podcaster Charlie Kirk’s death and how President Donald Trump responded. With a fiery debate igniting over the past week, Solano students weigh in on the situation and if this was a violation of the First Amendment.
During a live airing of “Jimmy Kimmel Live”, Kimmel goes on to discuss the assassination of Charlie Kirk, referencing the politicization of his death, alongside the 47th President’s response during an interview with The Independent.
Kimmel stated, “The MAGA Gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”
Later on, Kimmel makes a joking remark about how Donald Trump responded to a reporter asking how he was doing after the death of Kirk, with Trump segwaying the discussion around the new ballroom being installed at the White House.
Kimmel remarked, “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK?”
Abraham Rodriguez, a student attending the Solano, felt that everyone’s opinions should be able to be stated, “Whether it’s justified or not, I feel like everyone is entitled to voice how they feel.”
Rodriguez followed, “…In this day and age, people are gonna say how they feel about someone that’s not popular. At the end of the day, I feel like everyone can say what they want to say.”
Fellow student Jayme Bagalso raised her own concerns regarding the legality of the decision, “ I would think about the context of [Jimmy Kimmel’s] contract with the company. Maybe what he said was inappropriate if it went against the contract he had. He’s allowed to say his own opinions, but if it goes against their contract, then it was right for them to pull the show.”
Eva Jasso, however, was quite alarmed with the decision to pull the show, not for its legality but rather the principle of America’s constitution, “[Jimmy Kimmel] has his own opinion and he’s free to express it, we live with the freedom of speech and there shouldn’t be anything constructing us for what we wanna say.”
“[Donald Trump]’s abusing his power, claiming he’s fighting for freedom of speech when all he’s doing is constricting it into becoming his freedom of speech, speech to support him, and if you don’t support him, then you don’t have it. That’s what a dictator would do, not a president.” Jasso added.
With the cancellation recently lifted, Kimmel returned to the airwaves as of September 23rd, 2025, a week and a day after his silence from him and his team.
Kimmel came back with a tearful return, stating, “This show is not important, what is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
The show has gone back to consistent airing, with it being pulled from Nexstar programming, but remaining on ABC and Disney+.
