Jimmy Kimmel's Tearful Gun Control Monologue Was Cut Short in Texas

Jimmy Kimmel's Wednesday night show opened without an audience as he discussed the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in which a gunman opened fire, killing 19 children and two adults. Kimmel broke down in tears as he implored the nation to pass common sense gun control laws, but after the episode aired, the host learned his monologue was cut short on Dallas-Fort Worth's ABC affiliate WFAA.

“Once again we grieve for the little boys and girls whose lives have been ended and whose families have been destroyed," said Kimmel. "While our leaders on the right, the Americans in congress and at Fox News and these other outlets warn us not to politicize this. They immediately criticize our president for even speaking about doing something to stop it. Because they don’t want to speak about it because they know what they’ve done, and they know what they haven’t done. And they know it’s indefensible, so they’d rather sweep this under the rug.”

In his monologue, Kimmel demanded that senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, as well as Governor Greg Abbott, change the gun laws in Texas. "Here's the thing I would like to say to Ted Cruz the human being and Governor Abbott — everyone," said Kimmel. "It's okay to admit you made a mistake. In fact, it's not just okay. It's necessary to admit you made a mistake when your mistake is killing the children in your state. It takes a big person to do something like that. It takes a brave person to do something like that. And do I think these men are brave people? No, I don't. I don't, but man I would love it if they surprised me."

Kimmel continued, “Our cowardly leaders just aren’t listening to us. They’re listening to the NRA, they’re listening to those people who write them checks that keep them in power. Because that’s how politics works.”

In Dallas-Fort Worth, however, Kimmel's monologue was cut short as a series of commercials began airing instead, beginning with an in-house ad for WFAA, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

"A source at WFAA says the commercials aired and cut out part of the monologue because the 10 p.m. newscast ran long," reports the Star-Telegram. "It wasn’t just the monologue that received off-kilter cuts to commercials. An interview with Seth MacFarlane was chopped up into mangled segments between spots. Viewers in North Texas were left wondering what happened, with many speculating that WFAA had pulled the plug and censored Kimmel."

Kimmel addressed the commercial interruption on Twitter late Wednesday, though he stopped short of accusing WFAA of censorship.

To my friends in Dallas who are asking: I do not know whether our @ABCNetwork affiliate @wfaa cut away from my monologue tonight intentionally or inadvertently but I will find out. In the meantime, here's what you didn't get to see https://t.co/tqfHoBHMwN

— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) May 26, 2022

An hour after Kimmel posted his Tweet, he received a response from Peter Freedman, the director of digital content at WFAA saying, “We’d made the decision earlier in the day to extend our 10 o’clock news to include extra Uvalde coverage in our broadcast, it had nothing to do with your monologue. We’re on the same team.”

We'd made the decision earlier in the day to extend our 10 o'clock news to include *extra* Uvalde coverage in our broadcast, it had nothing to do with your monlogue. We're on the same team. 🤝

— Pete Freedman (@PeteFreedman) May 26, 2022

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Deena ElGenaidi's writing has been featured in Nylon, MTV News, Insider, The AV Club, and more. You can follow her on Twitter @deenaelg.