Jimmy Kimmel, the ‘nice guy’ the Trump administration got fired after two decades of late-night comedy

The threats were on the table. But they were just that, threats. Elbowing between the class leaders. They didn’t like Jimmy Kimmel, a down-to-earth, funny guy, a classic comedian better known in the United States than abroad, where everyone keeps confusing him with his namesake Jimmy Fallon. Trump had predicted months ago, when Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show was pulled by CBS, that both of them would go. “The word is, and it’s a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone,” the president posted on his platform, Truth Social, in July. “It’s really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it!”

On Wednesday morning, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr made good on his warning and called for Kimmel’s dismissal. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he asserted, with a bully’s attitude. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” Whether easy or hard, the threats have been carried out. Disney’s ABC announced it was taking the late night talk show off the air indefinitely. Kimmel has fallen.

But what is it about Jimmy Kimmel that generates so much animosity on the Republican side? Without a doubt, his joke about Charlie Kirk’s killer (“The MAGA Gang (is) desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it”) has been the last straw for the Republicans and the perfect excuse for the president’s desire to have him fired.

In reality, beyond his talent, there is nothing particularly special about Kimmel, other than his ability to use his own voice, using the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment. A 57-year-old New Yorker who was raised between Brooklyn and Las Vegas, he doesn’t have the encyclopedic memory or astute mind of Colbert (who can recite The Lord of the Rings by heart) nor the overwhelming popularity of Fallon (who has become a bigger star than some of the people he interviews, and with whom he sings and dances). However, he is, or was, one of the individuals who continued the tradition of late night comedy, where people interview, chat, joke, and, yes, criticize those in power. But these days, that is punishable. Kimmel has paid the heaviest price: the cancellation of his program. That’s despite the fact he never really wanted to do it in the first place.

Kimmel never planned a career in television. He rejected it. No one in his family was involved in it. They were a regular family: he is of Italian descent on his mother’s side and German on his father’s side (he recently obtained citizenship, concerned about the new U.S. government). He was raised largely in the church, serving as an altar boy. He was a radio kid, passionate about the microphone from high school, then in college (he studied at Arizona State University, one of the most innovative universities in the U.S.), and later professionally. He traveled across the country, from Phoenix and Tucson to Seattle, Tampa and Palm Springs, until he landed a permanent position at a popular Los Angeles station, KROQ.

It was the mid-1990s, and he became “Jimmy the Sports Guy.” He invented sketches, always with humor as his hallmark, and was looking to make a name for himself, as his former colleagues recalled in an interview a few years ago. “You will never find anyone who works harder than Jimmy, and he’s a genuinely nice guy. I think that’s evident in the show he has now. No one has changed less from his success. He still sends thank you cards,” recalled a colleague of his on Variety.

By then, he was a twentysomething who already had two children, Katie and Kevin, born in 1991 and 1993 from his relationship with his college sweetheart, Gina Maddy. After being laid off from his position in Tampa and moving to California, the job in Los Angeles became more than necessary: it was urgent. In a 2017 interview with Vulture, he explained that they were short on money and that he worked from four in the morning in order to have the afternoons free and not have to spend the five dollars an hour it cost to keep his daughter in preschool longer.

Little by little, he began to supplement his radio income by writing scripts for commercials that he ended up performing himself. Eventually, despite being rejected and turned down for many projects, he launched a comedy show on Comedy Central in 1997, which led to another, The Man Show, in 1999. In between, he married Maddy in 1998, although they would divorce four years later.

Finally, in 2003, he left to launch Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which has been on the air for 22 years. It wasn’t easy for him to make a name for himself. Unlike today, the late-night talk show scene was full of big stars, and it was difficult to stand out. He did so with simplicity, dark humor, good interviews, and, like a true Italian, with the presence of his family. His two siblings are close to him professionally: Frank as the show’s director, and Jill as a comedian on the Los Angeles scene. Furthermore, his uncle, Frank Potenza, was, until his death in 2011, a staple on the show, which his cousin Sal Iacono and his aunt Chippy also regularly visit. His son, Kevin, is also a sound engineer and production assistant.

After his divorce and a seven-year relationship with fellow comedian Sarah Silverman, he finally found family (and business, thanks to his production company) stability with Jimmy Kimmel Live!. In late 2009, he began dating one of the show’s writers, Molly McNearney, who would become his wife in the summer of 2013. In 2014, his daughter Jane was born, and in 2017, his little boy Billy was born with a heart condition that has required him to undergo three open-heart surgeries. Kimmel has spoken openly and emotionally about this on his show, advocating for the need for more affordable healthcare for Americans.

In fact, healthcare was one of Kimmel’s first points of concern with Republicans in 2017, both when his son was born and when Trump came to power. He appealed to Senator Bill Cassidy, questioning him about why he was cutting more than $243 billion from the federal healthcare budget. That year, he also hosted the Oscars, occasionally mentioning Trump and his supporters. He was host again in 2018, as well as in 2023 and 2024.

Over the years, Kimmel has managed to differentiate himself from his competitors. He turned his loyal Guillermo Rodríguez, who started out in minor roles and sleeping in the show’s parking lot, into a star with a unique brilliance (and accent). Actor Matt Damon is practically another member of the cast: ever since he stopped mid-interview with him one night in 2005 and signed off with, “Unfortunately, we’ve run out of time. My apologies to Matt Damon,” the phrase has become a constant refrain on the show and a running joke-fight between the two. He has given a voice to stars like Diego Luna, who spoke openly about immigration: “I have never been able to fully understand how it is that someone like Donald Trump is able to acquire this level of power,” Luna said. “I also struggle to understand how his hate speech can take root in a country whose nature has always been a welcoming one.”

Kimmel has also interviewed presidents, including Donald Trump in 2007 (when he was a reality show host), Barack Obama in 2015, and Joe Biden in 2022, in the ex-president’s first stint on a late-night show.

Kimmel, unlike his competitors, decided to stay in California and record in Hollywood, on the Walk of Fame. The actress and writer Wanda Sykes had been expected as a guest on Wednesday afternoon. She shared on her Instagram profile, fully made up for the show, that the show’s cancellation caught her by surprise. “So let’s see, [Trump] didn’t end the Ukraine war or solve Gaza within his first week, but he did end freedom of speech within his first year,” the actress said of the president. “Hey, for those of you who pray, now’s the time to do it. Love you, Jimmy.” Dozens of fans were left waiting outside his theater—which has had his star in front of it on the famous Walk of Fame since 2013. The line dissolved with little explanation. As some people told the local news, they were simply told that the show was being canceled and that their tickets would be good for a year. We’ll have to wait and see if it expires in their pockets.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition