Top media scholar calls Kimmel’s benching ‘one of the fastest exertions of station power I’ve ever seen,’ sees a vanilla late

President Donald Trump celebrated Disney-owned ABC’s indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after Wednesday night, congratulating ABC on “finally having the courage to do what needs to be done.” Trump also posted on his platform, incorrectly, that Kimmel’s show had been “cancelled.” The president continued posting, indicating he wants to reshape late-night TV.

Trump used the suspension – which happened after an ABC affiliate revolt over Kimmel’s criticisms of conservatives’ response to the assassination of activist Charlie Kirk – to double down on his feud with late-night television broadly, targeting Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers as “two total losers.”

“Their ratings are also horrible,” Trump posted on his platform, TruthSocial. “Do it NBC!!!”

But Robert Thompson of Syracuse