5 times Jimmy Kimmel got stuck in controversies as ABC’s firing causes uproar

Jimmy Kimmel became embroiled in a huge controversy when he made comments on Charlie Kirk and President Donald Trump recently.

In his monologue on the night of September 15, 2025, Kimmel spoke on the shooting of Kirk on September 10, and said:

“The MAGA gang 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.”

Responding to his statement, Disney’s ABC immediately took Kimmel’s late-night talk show off the air indefinitely. An ABC spokesperson said:

“Jimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely.”

The news caused an uproar due to the unforeseen nature of his decision. Many critics called it a threat to First Amendment rights and free speech.

Here is a throwback to five controversies Jimmy Kimmel has been involved in over the years.

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Exploring five of Jimmy Kimmel’s controversies in the past

There has been a sudden surge in interest in understanding past controversies about Jimmy Kimmel due to his recent indefinite suspension from his late-night show by ABC, Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Kimmel has remained a prominent face on television as a late-night show host for years, but his career is marked by several high-profile controversies.

1. Blackface

In June 2020, late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel apologized for his use of blackface impressions of Black celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Karl Malone in his comedy sketches on The Man Show. In his statement, he called it “embarrassing,” saying:

“I have long been reluctant to address this, as I knew doing so would be celebrated as a victory by those who equate apologies with weakness and cheer for leaders who use prejudice to divide us. That delay was a mistake. There is nothing more important to me than your respect, and I apologize to those who were genuinely hurt or offended by the makeup I wore or the words I spoke.”

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2. Oscars 2024

At the 2024 Academy Awards, Jimmy Kimmel pulled a controversial joke on Marvel actor Robert Downey Jr., referencing his past struggles with drug addiction. He said:

“This is the highest point in Robert Downey Jr’s long and illustrious career. Well, one of the highest points.”

The camera then cut to Downey Jr., who responded by tapping his nose and giving a grin. However, it did not go down well with the audience and was criticized on social media for making light of the actor’s addiction.

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3. Megan Fox’s Hollywood s*xualization

Jimmy Kimmel came under fire in 2020 when a clip from his 2009 interview with Megan Fox on Jimmy Kimmel Live! reemerged on the internet. During the show, the actress recalled how director Michael Bay s*xualized her by making her dance under a waterfall in a bikini, at the age of 15, when she was an extra in Bad Boys II. She said:

“The first time I ever worked with [Bay], actually, I had just turned 15 and I was an extra in Bad Boys II. They were shooting this club scene, and they brought me in, and I was wearing a stars-and-stripes bikini and a red cowboy hat and, like, six-inch heels."

She added:

" He approved it, and they said, you know, Michael, she's 15 so you can't sit her at the bar and she can't have a drink in her hand, so his solution to that problem was to then have me dancing underneath a waterfall getting soaking wet. At 15, I was in 10th grade. So that's sort of a microcosm of how Bay's mind works.”

In his response, Kimmel brushed her troubled experience at the set lightly with a joke, which drew widespread condemnation. He quipped:

“Yeah well, that's really a microcosm of how all of our minds work.”

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4. Chinese community

In October 2013, Jimmy Kimmel offended many in the Chinese and Chinese-American communities with his controversial joke. In the segment of his late-night talk show, called “Kids' Table,” he asks a group of children how the US should pay back the country's US$1.3 trillion debt to China, to which one six-year-old boy jokingly suggests “kill everyone in China.” He then responds by saying, “That’s an interesting idea.”

According to a report in Reuters, more than 105,000 people signed on to a White House petition demanding an apology. Later, Kimmel and ABC apologized independently and said that the comments “do not reflect mainstream views of China in the United States.”

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5. Epstein controversy

It revolves around a public feud that arose between NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Jimmy Kimmel in early 2024. During his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers suggested that the talk show host might be linked to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. He said:

“There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, who’s really hoping that doesn’t come out.”

He added that if it does, he would “definitely be popping some sort of bottle.”

Soon after his remarks, Kimmel blasted him in the opening monologue of his show. He said:

“And then it did come out, and, of course, my name isn't on it. ... I don't know Jeffrey Epstein, I've never met Jeffrey Epstein, I'm not on a list, I wasn't on a plane or an island or anything ever. I suggested that if Aaron wanted to make false and very damaging statements like that, we should do it in court so that he can share his proof with a judge."

The controversy reignited discussions about the celebrity involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s case.