Fans, celebrities and Democratic politicians on Wednesday expressed anger and disappointment after ABC announced that it was pulling “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from the air indefinitely, saying that the move amounted to censorship and was an attack on free speech.

Conservative activists and media personalities, meanwhile, celebrated ABC’s decision, saying that Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the motives of the man accused of fatally shooting the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk last week warranted the network shelving his late-night show.

On Monday, Mr. Kimmel said the “MAGA gang” was “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.”

The reactions to ABC’s decision reflected the partisan divide that was laid bare in the days since Mr. Kirk was killed.

Nicholas Scutti, 33, who lives in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, was among the fewer than 10 protesters who gathered outside Mr. Kimmel’s studio on Hollywood Boulevard on Wednesday evening. An aspiring comedy writer, he said that ABC’s decision to indefinitely take the program off the air had hit him particularly hard, and prompted him to to join a public show of disapproval.

“I think it is important to speak up now because if people don’t speak up now, it will be harder to speak up later,” he said.