Jimmy Kimmel reveals how he found out his show was being taken off air

Jimmy Kimmel has opened up about how he found out his show was being taken off the air.

For anyone out the loop, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, was pulled by ABC last month in response to comments he made in response to Charlie Kirk's death - despite Kimmel initially condemning the attack and sending 'love' to Kirk's family following the shooting.

Kirk, a right-wing political activist, was fatally shot during a debate event he held on the Utah Valley University campus on September 10.

22-year-old Tyler Robinson was arrested on suspicion of the shooting two days later, and has since been charged with aggravated murder and multiple other charges, including felony discharge of a firearm, obstruction of justice, and two counts of witness tampering.

Kimmel said on the September 15 episode that 'the MAGA gang [is] desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it'.

Jimmy Kimmel has opened up about the moment he found out ABC was pulling his show from the air (Randy Holmes / Contributor / Getty Images)

Following such a statement, US President Donald Trump suggested that if any TV networks only give him bad press personally, 'maybe their licence should be taken away'.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! was subsequently pulled in a move that became a huge talking point in the States and throughout the world, sparking major backlash from the Hollywood community and free speech advocates, prompting boycotts and protests.

Following the outcry, ABC announced that it would reinstate the show on 23 September.

In his return, Kimmel called government threats to silence comedians 'anti-American', adding: "This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this."

And, in one of his latest appearances, Kimmel has looked back on how he found out he was being taken off the air which happened, funnily enough, when he was in the loo.

Donald Trump was far from happy that Jimmy Kimmel Live! was put back on the air (Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Speaking to fellow talk show host Stephen Colbert on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday (30 September), Kimmel recalled: "It was about 3 o'clock, we tape our show at 4:30.

"I'm in my office, typing away as I usually do, I get a phone call. It's ABC. They say they want to talk to me. This is unusual. They - as far as I knew - didn't even know I was doing a show previous to this."

He continued: "I have like five people who work in my office with me. So the only private place to go is the bathroom.

"So I go into the bathroom, and I'm on the phone with the ABC executives. and they say, 'Listen, we want to take the temperature down. We're concerned about what you're going to say tonight, and we decided that the best route is to take the show off the air'."

The audience then erupted into a chorus of boos in reaction, prompting Kimmel to joke: "That's what I said! I started booing! I said, 'I don't think that's a good idea', and they said, 'Well, we think it's a good idea'. Then there was a vote and I lost the vote."

Kimmel carried on: "I put my pants back on, and I walked out to my office, and I called in some of the executive producers. There are about nine people in there. And I said, 'They're pulling the show off the air'.

"And I was - my wife said I was white, I was whiter than Jim Gaffigan when I came out of there."

"What's the first thing that occurred to you," Colbert asked Kimmel, to which he responded: "I thought, that's it, it's over. It is over. I was like I'm never coming back on the air. That's really what I thought.

"So we told our staff - meanwhile the whole audience was in their seats."

Kimmel also added that the audience for that night's show was 'loaded, and in their seats, ready for the show,' when he was informed that ABC had pulled the show.