Did ABC fire Jimmy Kimmel as host of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'?

A rumor that ABC had fired comedian Jimmy Kimmel from hosting the game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" circulated online in mid-September 2025, largely through social media posts on Facebook. Snopes readers also searched the site looking for more information about the claim.

Some users seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. However, there was no evidence ABC had fired Kimmel from the game show.

Rather, the rumor originated with America's Last Line of Defense — a network of social media pages that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature. The America's Last Line of Defense Facebook page bio states: 

The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash.
Nothing on this page is real.

The fictional story spread after ABC and parent company Disney announced an indefinite hiatus of Kimmel's late-night show, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Sept. 17. (Less than a week later, on Sept. 22, Disney announced the show would resume airing the following day.)

Kimmel had joked about the response of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to the Sept. 10 killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said in an appearance on a conservative podcast that he might "take action" against ABC and Disney for Kimmel's remarks. Hours later, Nexstar, a large owner of local television stations seeking FCC approval for a merger with Tegna, announced its ABC affiliates would not air Kimmel's show. Disney announced it was pulling the show the same day.

According to Us Weekly, Kimmel's status as host of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" was still up in the air at the time.

America's Last Line of Defense has a history of making up stories for shares and comments. Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims that originated with its pages in the past, including the false assertion that former Democratic Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams was indicted on a charge of voter fraud. We also looked into a claim that Coca-Cola dropped Kimmel because of his remarks.

For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.