Kimmel: Ratings Not Politics - September 18th, Hour 1
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This breaking earlier today, that Erica Kirk, the wife of the late Turning Point USA founder, Charlie Kirk has now been chosen to lead the organization as its next uh chief executive officer.
After seeing so much videos, uh so many so much, so many videos about uh Charlie and Erica together and the advice they would they would give young people, relationship advice.
Uh and uh and the way these young kids responded was phenomenal.
It's it's advice that that parents really want to give their kids, but the kids will roll their eyes if the parents give it.
Does that make sense, Linda, at all?
It just it's there's certain times, like you know, if dad's giving them advice, uh there goes dad, oh dad's giving me a lecture again.
And I don't uh I don't try to lecture my kids, but um just really, really deep, profound advice on how to navigate through relationships, navigate through their faith and and encourage their journey of faith,
navigate through the issue of drugs and alcohol and and what relationships should be about, what they should look like, and offering a very moral message, and and it was deep and it was it was profound.
Um the big news of the day has to do with Jimmy Kimmel.
Uh, and there's so much BS out there, and I predicted last night because uh the story broke just kind of prior to me coming on the air, and that ABC, ABC made this decision.
ABC, you know, the same ABC that fired Rose Ambarr for a tweet, the same ABC that fired, you know, iconic radio talk shows Bob Grant, many, many years ago, for a comment that he made on air, controversial comment that he made.
Uh, that same ABC.
Uh, but it's really not the issue that, you know, that that's only fundamental in terms of if Jimmy Kimmel had a mass audience, if Jimmy Kimmel were more successful, and he wasn't, by any objective measure, there he would not be probably not being the situation that he's in today, even in spite of what he said.
Now, the first crack that he made about Charlie Kirk was to mock President Trump's reaction to Charlie Kirk's assassination.
Why would you mock somebody's reaction to that?
It's more like the way you mourn for a goldfish.
Listen.
This is not how an adult grieves the murder of somebody called a friend.
This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish, okay.
Now, I I do remember, and I don't remember what what medical issue that uh his own child was going through, and I remember thinking, oh, I hope that kid's okay.
And that's all I remember, and I remember him getting very teary-eyed.
You would think he'd be a little bit more sensitive when you're talking about a husband and father of two young children, Mr. Sensitivity.
Uh, But anyway, then he claimed that the that Charlie Kirk's assassin was MAGA, which is simply just fake news.
It's just not true.
He had some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang 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.
All right, so we you know ABC made the decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel show off the air indefinitely.
If yet ask me, I don't think he's ever coming back and I don't think many people are going to care, meaning not coming back to ABC.
There are plenty of platforms that will be available.
Jimmy Kimmel if he wants his his political commentary because it's not late night comedy which is a big part of the problem.
A lot of this decision came after local affiliate uh station owners like Next Star and Sinclair I thought maybe one of the more ironic parts of this Sinclair uh they're they're going to do a tribute instead of Jimmy Kimmel.
They'll do a tribute to Charlie Kirk um and all of this, I mean his comments were just you know just typical Kimmel.
He made a lot of disgusting remarks uh he made you know about for example the you know why would you make that remark about President Trump's grief over the assassination and I've had my battles with Kimmel over the years but it not one time did I ever call for Jimmy Kimmel's firing at no time did I ever call for his for his show to be boycotted.
I just called him out for what he is, a jackass, and to this day, he'll be a jackass.
If anything, he'll be on a platform where he can curse a lot and say anything he wants about anybody until I guess it crosses the libel line, then he will be sued if, in fact, he does that.
But he has spent so much of his show has become political, and this is where now we get into what the real reasons are, and we've all read about Stephen Colbert's show, and what, it had 200 employees,
40 million dollars a year according to CBS and you know you have to ask yourself well why you know what happened these are supposed to be late night comedy shows and you know it's a typical show you'd expect to see on on fake news CNN or MSDNC and you know that it and there is you know there was the predictable race Humpty Dumpty.
I I thought Humpty Dumpty didn't he get fired they hired him back right Humpty Dumpty's back.
That was a bad decision bad hiring decision um and Gavin Newsom got involved and JB Pritzker got involved and it's it's not what got Jimmy Kimmel fired.
I can't find and I've looked and I looked last night before the T V show I can't find a single prominent conservative voice in the country that wanted you know except for people being critical of the show saying he sucks and shouldn't be on the air there's been no effort to get him removed from from ABC not one.
Nobody.
I've never in my whole career have called for anybody, anybody's show to be canceled, for anybody to be fired.
I've never once in my life called for a boycott.
I've experienced all these calls against me in my life, and I'll get to that in a second.
But the show was failing spectacularly.
His ratings are even lower than Stephen Colbert's ratings, which were pretty low because these are supposed to be late night comedy shows, and they become nothing more but a never ending, you know, Trump hate shows.
And, and that in and of itself is problematic.
There's plenty of that everywhere else on the TV and and you know all over the the legacy media mob.
So what's happened is he had a show that at one point had decent ratings when he inherited it and he he ran that show into the ground.
And as a result, the ratings tanked.
And the ratings have been in the sewer now for some time.
When ratings go that low, then revenues they begin to dry up.
In other words, Jimmy Kimmel failed at his job.
He lost a significant portion of the audience he inherited when he took over that show and then lost, you know, or since he's had the show, and then lost, you know, revenue that they had predictably counted on at ABC Disney.
And my understanding is most of these station groups, they were just fed up.
This this was like this the straw that broke the camel's back.
They had a show with low ratings that wasn't generating a lot of revenue, and they didn't want the show anymore.
And so they were putting it on hiatus.
But in the end, it was ABC that made the decision.
And my understanding is it's probably going to be replaced with Steve Harvey's celebrity family feud.
Steve Harvey's funny.
Steve Harvey on that show is funny.
That show is more entertaining.
I predict they'll probably have higher ratings with celebrity family feud than with anything Kimmel was offering.
Now he did the good part, if there's any if if if Kimmel, who according to reports, is very angry today, wants any good news, he'll have an opportunity to be platformed, but it's just not going to be where it is now.
And as Brendan Carr first said it to podcaster Benny Johnson, then he said it to us last night, is what people don't understand is if you're on a broadcast network, if you're on a broadcast network, it's entirely different than if you're on a cable channel, and they have a license that is granted by the FCC, and with that license comes an obligation to operate in the quote public interest.
Now, the public interest part of that equation has been ignored for many, many years, but a lot of things have been ignored many, many years, and the Trump administration has decided that they're not going to ignore it anymore.
But I find the other hypocrisy of it is pretty spectacular.
You know, a little odd.
We had Barack Obama complaining that Trump the Trump administration is somehow responsible for getting Jimmy Kimmel fired.
Uh it's the precisely the kind of government coercion the first amendment Obama said was designed to prevent media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.
Well, that makes you know a particularly interesting comment because Roseanne Barr retweeted that and said that it was Michelle Obama and Barack Obama that actually called Bob Iger to get her fired from her top-rated ABC show that was making a ton of money in 2018, and Obama personally thanked ABC's Bob Iger for dumping Roseanne.
Now, Obama had been out of the White House a little over a year at the time, but when a network executive gets a request for a favor from an ex-president and his wife, both of whom a Democratic Party, you know, icons, that that executive is gonna take note, and they did.
Roseanne said Michelle Obama's the one that got me fired.
She's the one that called the ABC that I had to go because of my quote, racist tweet.
Bob Iger who fired me said his first phone call was to Valerie Jarrett to apologize to her, and that Michelle Obama also got a phone call with them, and that Barack Obama called them afterward to thank him for firing me.
That's what she said.
Um look, these broadcast networks, I got to know from a friend of mine, I thought it was dead on accurate.
They've been tone-deaf since they shared this this deep psychotic Trump derangement syndrome, rage and hatred of Trump, and the political beliefs, and this is their talent.
They failed miserably.
And you know, the and they lost their audience in the process, and the political convictions already misguided, blinded them to the economics of what the programming was about.
Let me play for you, and this was said after Colbert was fired by Jay Leno.
Let's listen to what Jay Leno said.
There was an analysis done of your your work on the Tonight Show for the 22 years, and that your jokes were roughly equally balanced between going after Republicans and taking aim at Democrats.
Well, that's a strategy, yeah.
Well, my it's funny to me when I got hate letters from damn it's not you and your Republican friends.
Well, Miss Line, I hope you and your Democratic buddies are happy.
Over the same joke.
And I go, well, that's good.
So that's how you get a whole audience.
Now you go you have to be intent with half the audience because you have to give your opinion.
Well, and it's worth noting that both you and Rodney Dangerfield experienced and have been experiencing enormous success.
Right.
So your approach worked in the marketplace.
Well, why why shoot for just half an audience all the time?
You know, why not try to get the whole?
I mean, I I I like to bring people into the big picture.
I I don't understand why you would alienate one particular group, you know.
Uh, or or just don't do it at all.
I'm not saying you have to throw your support or whatever, uh, but just do what's funny.
Why alienate half the country?
Now let's go to the great Johnny Carson.
Johnny Carson was on with Mike Wallace, and this is how that went out.
Sensitive about the fact that people say he'll never take a serious controversy.
Well, I have an answer to that.
I said, now tell me the last time a Jack Benny, Red Skelton, uh, any comedian, use his show to do serious issues.
That's not what I'm there for.
Can't they see that?
But you're neither they think that just because you have a tonight show that you must deal in serious issues.
That's a danger.
It's a real danger.
Once you start that, you start to get that self-important feeling that what you say has great import.
And you know, strangely enough, you could use that show as a forum.
You could sway people, and I don't think you should as an entertainer.
I don't think you should as an entertainer.
These are supposed to be entertaining shows.
And they lost their audience, they lost their revenue.
I do have articles.
Thanks, sweet baby James.
I really appreciate your reminding me.
Headline, the rap.
Fox News should fire Sean Hannity.
Media Matters Head says, uniquely destructive.
Uh, let's see.
Oh, another another article that he he thankfully pulled out of the archives.
Well, Fox News fire Sean Hannity.
A naive and hopeful analysis.
These are Sean Hannity's leading advertisers.
I don't remember any liberal caring when I got fired.
And ironically, when Tucker got fired, uh, who was leading the cheers but Jimmy Kimmel?
Here's what he said.
Fox News has severed bow ties with Tucker Carlson after all these years.
They are parting ways, uh, which means he was fired.
I mean, that's really what parting ways mean.
He couldn't be reached for comment.
He's already on a plane to Moscow to meet with his manager.
But what a shock.
I mean, what an absolutely delightful shock this is.
Well, Tucker can spend more time at home tanning his testicles and touching himself to that sexy green MM.
Sadly, he's probably not done poisoning old people's brains.
The question now is where will he do it next?
Will he go to OAN?
Will he go to Newsmax?
Will he crawl back up Satan's fiery beehole from once he came?
We don't know.
One of the most despicable mother tuckers ever to appear on American television.
Oh, so I guess that that gives us free reign to celebrate his his demise and his firing.
800 941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
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You know, there is a business aspect to broadcasting.
It's just an undeniable fact.
Um, I think Johnny Carson said it well.
We just played that.
I think that Jay Leno said it well.
I think that's one of the reasons their shows were so infinitely more successful.
And as these late night, not funny, supposed to be comedy shows have deteriorated into basically, you know, mocking, making fun of, slandering, and smearing half the country and being obsessed with all things Donald Trump.
You know, this is a predictable outcome.
If you go back to the days when politically incorrect was on ABC, the show did well.
And when it got canceled because of something that Bill Marr said, I I understood what he was saying.
A lot of people didn't like what he said, you know, that the hijackers on 9 11, you know, when somebody said that they were cat when the government said they were cowards.
He said, No, I wouldn't use that phrase, meaning that they were insane killers, and they didn't care, and that you know, to be a killer like that, it just was more nuanced.
It anyway, you know who the loudest voices that I recall.
I can only speak for myself, but the loudest voices saying that ABC shouldn't fire Bill Maher were people like Rush Lumbaugh and Mark Levin and Sean Hannity, and there were others.
Uh, not that I think he would ever remember, but those were the voices that said this is ridiculous.
But that didn't stop.
I uh in all the years that I've had calls for boycotts of this show, or you know, efforts to get me fired from this show, or efforts to get me fired from Fox or boycotted from Fox.
And all those years, I don't remember any liberal ever standing up for me.
Uh when Joy Reed was about to get fired, um, because of comments she had made years earlier.
I said that you know what, she should you know be given a second chance.
And I was told later by an MBC executive, true story, that I that my commentary, my comments on this played a major role in her at the time being able to keep her job.
And I'm I don't agree with a single thing she says.
But I don't want to be a part of this cancel culture.
I don't want to call for people's firing.
I'm not calling, I didn't call for Jimmy Kimmel's firing, and I had more fights with Jimmy Kimmel than any conservative that I can think of.
You know, when I used to spend waste my time on social media, which I don't really do anymore, but you know, it's it's kind of like they just they're kind of like Rush used to call flyover country.
You know, it's they're like flyover networks driven by their thought minders, you know, in California, New York, and DC.
And that's who they did their show for.
And, you know, and you want to understand the phenomenon that continues with alternative media like talk radio, alternative media like new podcasters, alternative media, and I still believe it's alternative because there's nothing else like it.
Uh Fox News, and I will be completing my 30th year, if you can believe it, next month, thanks to all of you.
You know, the growth of these alternatives and all the online options that are available and social media that is available, although that is becoming cancerous and toxic in its own right.
And, you know, these anonymous people in their basement underwear.
We we've seen this since the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
It's just been horrible.
And his, you know, Kimmel's If you want to know the truth, I mean, he tried hard to get fired, even predicted that these shows wouldn't last.
Because he knew the ratings were in decline, and with ratings decline comes the predictable revenue decline, which then results in them canceling shows.
That's kind of the way it's always worked.
Anyways, Cannes show will be replaced on Sinclair television stations.
Their local stations pay to run ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, said that they will refrain from broadcasting Kimmel's show indefinitely following his comments that he made about Kirk's assassination.
It didn't detail which stations would air tribute, but the firm has a portfolio, apparently that includes as many as 185 TV stations around the country, 85 markets throughout the U.S. affiliated with different networks, ABC,
CBS, Fox, and MBC, and they said they will refuse to lift the suspension of Kimmel's show on its stations until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network's commitment to professionalism and accountability.
The broadcaster also called on Kimmel to issue a direct apology to the Kirk family.
Apparently, Jimmy Kimmel went nuclear.
According to the Daily Mail, he's gone up absolutely apoplectic.
He's gone nuclear after ABC pulled the show.
Insiders telling the Daily Mail that the late night host is absolutely effing livid that they canceled his show just hours before he was about to tape and go on the air.
The sources revealed he was holding a crunch meeting with network executives, but it's keen to break his relationship with the four with them forever.
And apparently he's already teeing up a short, teeing up a guest slot with axed CBS star Stephen Colbert.
One of his producers said they were wandering around like aimless cows, adding, I've never seen Jimmy this angry.
I know Jimmy really has nothing else.
I just played for you.
Jimmy Kimmel celebrating when Tucker Carlson got fired.
You know, you really don't have a career in broadcasting if at some point you don't get fired.
I kind of got fired early in my career.
In retrospect, I would argue I deserved every bit of it because I was stupid, but everyone else on the station was stupid too.
And they all should have been fired, but that's a different issue for a different day.
But anyway, it's um the other big network group is Nextstar.
They made their announcement that they rejected the comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk.
A lot of these stations are in they're in major markets, but they're not in California.
They're not in DC, and they're not in New York.
And there's a whole other part of the country.
And if you look at the electoral map, that part of the country is red.
And to insult all of those people on a nightly basis, and then see your ratings deteriorate on a daily basis, you know, should have been a wake-up call for everybody involved.
In that sense, I think you can blame probably network executives for a lot of what's gone on here.
But, you know, apparently one article said ABC execs were quote, pissing themselves, fearing Trump blowback, Yank Kimmel, despite thinking he didn't cross the line, according to one report.
And then all these liberals coming out this systemic destruction of freedom of speech.
Did they ever once when any conservative was ever fired or any calls for any firing?
No, they supported these groups that organized these boycotts and these these efforts to cancel conservative shows.
So it's so save me the lecture.
And I remember Linda when they were publishing without my permission, thousands of my personal text messages.
Did anyone ever stand up for me when they were boycotting the show?
It was the audience that stood up for me when Kerrig pulled off the show.
And then all these people started destroying their their carriag machines in the coolest ways imaginable.
Hitting him with baseball bats, dropping them from you know, third floor windows, and letting them smash.
How many Kerry machines did I end up buying as a result of that?
Because I ended up buying it for everyone that that defended me.
A thousand.
A thousand.
Did we get a discount?
We did get a discount.
Ironically, the gentleman uh who we bought the Keurig machines from was a huge Hannity fan.
So well, it was the audience that saved me in that moment, and it was it was kind of a perilous moment for me.
And it happened organically.
I didn't all of a sudden somebody starts sending me all these videos.
I'm like, holy moly.
Couldn't believe it.
Rosie O'Donnell predictably melting down.
It's all very predictable behavior.
And it's it's it's not the result of a conservative group of people wanting to get Jimmy fired.
Anyway, um we have other news to get to here.
Uh oh, Kamala Harris revealed that her first choice for VP would have been Pete Buttigieg, but she decided she couldn't pick him because he was gay.
According to the Hill, Harris revealed in her upcoming book that transportation secretary Pothole Pete was her first choice for running mate, but that he would have proved too risky.
Atlantic reported an excerpt of her book, 107 Days, detailing Harris's assessment that Buddha judge would have been an ideal partner if I were a straight white man, but we were already asking a lot of America to accept a woman, an African American woman, a black woman married to a Jewish man, the former vice president rope.
I mean, is this all predicated on the belief that they think the country's bigoted?
Because if they do, they're wrong.
Newly declassified documents indicate that uh the congenital liar Adam Schiff, no shock here.
We already knew this and believe this to be true.
Recently declassified 2017 documents, link people close to ex-FBI boss James Comey and now Senator Adam Schiff to leaks of classified information to prominent reporters designed to portray Donald Trump and his allies as being in league in in the league with Russia, according to real clear investigations, Paul Sperry, and now picked up by the New York Post.
The documents expose selected Washington reporters, notably the Washington Post, New York Times scored these scoops by repeating false inflammatory leaks.
We've lived through this, and it's all been debunked, and it's all getting exposed, and all these people should be held accountable.
Later in the program, we're talking to our friend Peter Navarro.
He has a new book out.
I went to prison, so you don't you won't have to.
A Love and Lawfare Story in Trump led.
He didn't have to go to jail.
Where do you hear a story?
It's unbelievable.
Immigration judge in Louisiana ruled the Democratic uh favor pro Hamas rabble rouser should be deported to Algeria.
Oopsie, Daisy.
Oh, God forbid.
The funniest thing I think that happened this week is Kathy Hokel finally gave in to the pressure, endorsed uh Zoran, Tommy Marxist Mondani, and then he refused to endorse her back.
I don't know why I thought that was so funny, but I did think it was funny.
Uh President Trump has designated Antifa, a major terrorist organization.
Not sure why David Axelrod would be against that, but apparently he is.
Um that's a little bit shocking.
Not sure exactly why.
But he grimly warned Trump that the designation of the leftist group would be used to go after the president's enemies.
Unbelievable.
Um, but you know, people stand by me and believe what they want to believe.
Uh we have a lot of Charlie Kirk news that I want to get to in the course of the the program today.
Um, not the least of which the alleged assassin negotiated his surrender, was afraid of being shot.
Um, and of course, Erica is now gonna head up the organization.
She's gonna be the new CEO.
Um, and we wish her the best.
And it's gonna be a rough weekend.
I think the funeral is on Saturday, and then the rally is on Sunday of this week.
An immigration judge in Louisiana's ruled Democrats pro Hamas Rabo Rouser, as I said, would go to um Algeria.
Uh, but back to Kirk here for a second.
Uh the family of the suspected assassins should quote lay low, according to the local sheriff.
Uh, they need to lay low for a long time, unfortunately.
Washington County Sheriff Nate Brooksby said to reporters after being asked about the family of Tyler Robinson.
So, even I'll throw this out there.
I have a second cousin with the last name Robinson, who appears to be an optometrist in town.
And, you know, his office has been receiving threatening calls.
People need to stop with this.
They need to stop.
Uh, according to a new report on Fox News.com, Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin's roommate was problematic before the family ended up kicking that person out.
There's a lot more to this story.
I'll tell you some things I want to know.
Was anybody else involved?
There are apparently in and around the area extremist groups that share this assassin's you know, twisted worldview and even have the word armed in the name of their organizations.
And I want to know that part of it.
I want to know if anybody else was involved in it.
I want to know if he acted alone.
Uh there's there's just too many unanswered questions here.
And the FBI's got to turn over every stone and get to the bottom of it.
Well, a more on the indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel.
I think it's permanent.
That's my guess.
Uh, we'll find out what happens.
Uh, we haven't seen any reaction.
It was ABC that pulled him.
Uh local uh stations had had it with his comments after Charlie Kirk's assassination.
Uh then later in the program, our friend Peter Navarro, his book is so compelling.