Television personalities who have come under fire

It sent shockwaves through Hollywood when Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” was taken off the air following controversy over comments made by the host about the killing of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk. Many in the industry, citing alleged pressure by the Trump administration’s FCC, called for the show’s network, ABC, to reverse its decision. But Kimmel is just the latest in a long line of television pundits and cable hosts (including Stephen Colbert this summer) who have faced criticism.

Jimmy Kimmel

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was suspended this month “after comments that he made about Charlie Kirk’s killing” caused a backlash among conservatives, said The Associated Press. The late-night host’s commentary was not about the actual shooting of Kirk, but rather about the right-wing reaction to it. “We hit 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,” Kimmel said during his monologue.

The comments “led a group of ABC-affiliated stations to say it would not air the show and provoked some ominous comments from a top federal regulator,” said the AP. The decision, made by TV station conglomerate Nexstar, came hours after FCC Chair Brendan Carr “suggested Jimmy Kimmel should be suspended and said, ‘We can do this the easy way or the hard way’” during an interview, said CNN. The decision to ax Kimmel’s show “raised serious First Amendment concerns” among free speech watchdog groups.

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Brian Kilmeade

Brian Kilmeade, a morning host on the Fox News show “Fox & Friends,” garnered a barrage of criticism after asserting on-air this month that mentally ill homeless people should be executed. Homeless people should either accept help or “decide that [they] are going to be locked up in jail. That’s the way it has to be now,” said co-host Lawrence Jones during a discussion about a North Carolina woman allegedly murdered by a mentally ill homeless man. “Or involuntary lethal injection or something. Just kill ’em,” Kilmeade replied.

Anger toward Kilmeade didn’t occur “until a few days later, when clips of the comments spread quickly on social media,” The New York Times said. Once the video made the rounds, though, “heavy criticism followed” and “some called for his dismissal.” Amid the uproar, Kilmeade offered an apology days later. He “wrongly said” homeless people should get lethal injections, and apologized for the “extremely callous remark,” Kilmeade said. However, some thought the apology didn’t go far enough and urged Fox to fire him regardless.

Jimmy Fallon

While Jimmy Fallon may be known for his consistently laughing and bubbly personality on “The Tonight Show,” the host came under fire in 2023 after a report from Rolling Stone seemingly documented the show’s problematic workplace. The show has been a “toxic workplace for years — far outside the boundaries of what’s considered normal in the high-pressure world of late-night TV,” said Rolling Stone’s report.

This was due to Fallon’s “erratic behavior, and has trickled down to its ever-changing leadership teams — nine showrunners in the past nine years — who seemingly don’t know how to say no to Jimmy,” said Rolling Stone. The show’s employees claimed they were “belittled and intimidated by their bosses, including Fallon himself.” After Rolling Stone published its story, Fallon reportedly “apologized to his colleagues” during a Zoom call and said he “did not intend to ‘create that type of atmosphere for the show,’” said CNN.

Chris Cuomo

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was a mainstay on the network for years. But his career with the channel came to an end in 2021 after Cuomo allegedly “aided his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, when the then-governor was accused of sexual harassment,” said CNN. The network fired Cuomo over conflict-of-interest concerns because there was “new information that came to light about his involvement with his brother’s defense.”

After being fired, Cuomo claimed CNN used him as a scapegoat and sued the network because it “repeatedly breached its agreement,” lawyers for the anchor said in a lawsuit. Cuomo became “untouchable in the world of broadcast journalism” because of CNN’s “efforts to tar and feather him.” But Cuomo eventually landed another job and currently hosts “Cuomo” on NewsNation.

Ellen DeGeneres

“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” became a daytime television staple during its 19-season run, with the eponymous host always signing off by urging her viewers to “be kind to one another.” But in 2020, this came crashing down as “DeGeneres and several senior staffers have been accused by current and former employees of fostering a toxic work environment,” said Entertainment Weekly.

The allegations of workplace misconduct and bullying arose at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and crew members were “distressed and outraged over their treatment from top producers amid the coronavirus pandemic,” said Variety. The crew members claimed they “received no written communication about the status of their working hours, pay, or inquiries about their mental and physical health from producers for over a month.” Several years after the controversy arose, in 2024, DeGeneres claimed she “got kicked out of show business for being mean.”

Matt Lauer

Matt Lauer was one of the most recognizable names on television for years as a co-host of NBC’s “Today.” But his career seemed to be irreparably damaged in 2017 after numerous women “identified themselves as victims of sexual harassment by Lauer, and their stories have been corroborated by friends or colleagues that they told at the time,” said Variety. This conduct allegedly ranged from gifting a “colleague a sex toy as a present” to a time when he summoned a “female employee to his office, and then dropped his pants.”

NBC fired the host after the allegations came to light. A later investigation found that the “allegations were credible, but that the conduct in question was never specifically reported to human resources or to senior NBC News executives,” said NPR. But at least one other media individual, former CNN anchor Don Lemon, thinks Lauer could make a comeback despite his conduct. Lauer “can set his own course” in digital news media, Lemon said.

Billy Bush

As a nephew of former President George H.W. Bush and cousin of former President George W. Bush, Billy Bush’s last name already made him famous, and he gained further notoriety as a correspondent for “Access Hollywood” and “Today.” But Bush found himself in the middle of a significant controversy in 2016, when a resurfaced 2005 clip from “Access Hollywood” showed him having a lewd conversation with Donald Trump.

The infamous tape, in which Trump boasts that he can grab women “by the pussy” because “when you’re a star, they let you do it,” also damaged Bush’s image. Bush was suspended by “Today” and soon afterwards fired. But had that tape “leaked out when it actually occurred in 2005, I would’ve been fired for an entirely different reason — killing their cash cow,” Bush said on Rob Lowe’s podcast in July 2025.” Trump “was a protected, revered source. He was a hundred million dollars in profit for NBC.”