Turning Point Didn't Want ABC To Cancel Jimmy Kimmel And Make Him A Martyr

While Jimmy Kimmel and his supporters celebrated his return last week as a victory, Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet says the organization didn’t view it as such.

Kolvet, a close friend of Charlie Kirk, said he was "relieved" when ABC brought Kimmel back on air, arguing that canceling his show would have made him a martyr.

"I don’t want Jimmy Kimmel to be a martyr. He doesn’t deserve it. He’s a liar, he’s an unrepentant liar, but he should not be considered a martyr by anybody," Kolvet told Fox News Digital.

Kolvet is correct.

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE - "Jimmy Kimmel Live" airs every weeknight at 11:35 p.m. EST and features a diverse lineup of guests that includes celebrities, athletes, musical acts, comedians and human-interest subjects, along with comedy bits and a house band. The guests for Thursday, September 14 included Stephen Colbert ("69th Primetime Emmy Awards"), Nina Dobrev ("Flatliners") and musical guest Dustin Lynch. (Randy Holmes/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images) STEPHEN COLBERT, JIMMY KIMMEL

Kimmel had slipped from the daily zeitgeist in recent years, with his late-night program losing nearly 50% of its audience since 2017. It wasn’t until ABC suspended him for lying about the political affiliation of Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin that liberal and Hollywood allies rallied behind him.

If ABC had canceled his show entirely, that surge of support would have only grown. Instead, as Kolvet noted, Kimmel has returned not as a martyr but as just another late-night host with a dwindling audience.

His September 23 return drew a temporary spike of 6.3 million viewers, but the very next night his audience collapsed by 64%. Within days, he was back to his pre-suspension average of about 1.6 million. The momentum is gone.

Put simply, Kimmel may need to get suspended again for the sake of his ratings.

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! - "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" airs every weeknight at 11:35 p.m. EDT and features a diverse lineup of guests that include celebrities, athletes, musical acts, comedians and human interest subjects, along with comedy bits and a house band. The guests for Monday, March 25, included Bill Hader ("Barry"), Regina Hall ("Little"), and musical guest Gunna. (Randy Holmes via Getty Images) JIMMY KIMMEL

Kolvet is also right that Kimmel doesn’t deserve martyr status. Kimmel is not courageous but cowardly. He lied about the murder of a 31-year-old father of two, reportedly planned to double down on that lie, and has still not corrected the record.

In his return, Kimmel shed a few tears as he warned that Donald Trump and his fascist ambitions could lead to the end of late-night television.

"Our freedom to speak is what they admire most about this country, and that’s something I’m embarrassed to say I took for granted until they pulled my friend Stephen off the air," Kimmel said.

"The President of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke. He was somehow able to squeeze Colbert out of CBS. Then he turned his sights on me, and now he’s openly rooting for NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers," Kimmel concluded.

Note: Trump did not squeeze Stephen Colbert out. According to reports, Colbert’s show was losing around $40 million.

Speaking of late-night shows losing money, it’s worth noting that Kimmel likely wanted ABC to cancel him. Kimmel will have a much weaker claim to martyrdom when the network inevitably cancels his show for low ratings than he would have if ABC had ousted him over his lie about Charlie Kirk.