The Meaning of Preempted Spells Bad News for the Future of 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!'

Establishing a successful television series can take a long time. Producers, writers, and the talent that appear on screen work together to make a final product that hopefully airs for years.

Sometimes, unpredictable circumstances lead to a successful show being taken off the air without notice, leaving a void on the network's schedule. The process is usually different from a normal cancellation, which is a premeditated decision.

Unfortunately, what happened to Jimmy Kimmel was out of the ordinary. ABC reported that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be preempted after a joke from one of the host's opening monologues caused controversy.

What does preempted mean? Here's what we know about what happened to Jimmy Kimmel Live! and what it could mean for the presenter's future.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, preempt means to replace one television program with another, usually a more important one. The action is usually reserved for when a breaking news story is forced to take over the airwaves.

For example, if a situation similar to the death of Queen Elizabeth II were to take place, news coverage of the event would immediately replace entertainment shows on television in order to inform the public.

In the United States, the Sept. 11 attacks caused news outlets to preempt everything else that was shown on television at the time of the tragedy. The strategy ensures that every member of the population who tunes in at the moment is made aware of what is happening.

It's not common for programming to be preempted. It's generally reserved for major emergencies or news stories that concern the entire nation.

What happened to Jimmy Kimmel wasn't necessarily a nationwide emergency, but it's important to take into account the context of his statements to understand why he was taken off the air.

Podcaster Charlie Kirk was a conservative public figure who was murdered on Sept. 10. The influencer constantly showed his support for President Donald Trump and his Republican administration.

According to NPR, Jimmy Kimmel joked about the context behind the tragedy of Charlie's passing, with the presenter saying: "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."

This was enough for ABC to pull the plug on a show that has been a late-night landmark for many years.

Taking Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air isn't strictly an emergency. In this case, the show being preempted indefinitely means that the network will look to replace it with something else, as a direct result of the host's suspension.

Jimmy began working as the presenter of the series in 2003. Through many different administrations, the host was able to speak freely regarding any subject imaginable. Two decades later, that's no longer the case.