Protesters in Los Angeles carry signs protesting the ABC night show host Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday. A child made divisive comment in his program earlier this month about how the US should "kill everyone in China" to deal with American debt. Kimmel apologized in front of the protesting group Wednesday. Photo: Yu Yan

Jimmy Kimmel apologized on Wednesday for the divisive words said by kids in his night show earlier this month in front of more than 100 people, largely Asian Americans, who marched to the studio to protest the skit.

The offensive comment has sparked indignation and protests from the Chinese community. US TV network ABC, where Jimmy works, had earlier sent a letter to a Chinese American organization to apologize.

Many Chinese American politicians, including Congresswoman Judy Chu, California State Senator Leland Yee, and Los Angeles Community College District board member Mike Eng, all requested an apology from ABC.

ABC issued an apology Monday for Kimmel, during whose program a child suggested that the entire population of China could be murdered to deal with American debt.

"We offer our sincere apology," Reuters reported ABC as saying. "We would never purposefully broadcast anything to upset the Chinese community, Asian community, anyone of Chinese descent or any community at large. Our objective is to entertain."

ABC added that the skit will be cut from subsequent re-airings. "We took swift action to minimize the distribution of the skit by removing it from all public platforms available to us and editing it out of any future airings of the show. We hope our actions and our apology effectively address your concerns. Thank you for bringing this to our attention."

The Los Angeles Times said that in the taped piece that aired October 16, host Kimmel sat down with school kids to discuss the government shutdown. When asked what should be done about America's debts to China, a boy replied that one solution might be to "kill everyone in China."

The remark drew much fiercer objections from China's blogosphere, where tens of thousands of people voiced their anger on forums, online polls, and a petition to the White House, ultimately eliciting a public apology from Kimmel's parent network ABC, said TIME.

The petition, which called the skit "extremely distasteful," had gathered 63,000 signatures by Monday afternoon, and an online poll, translated by Chinasmack, gauged reactions to the skit that ranged from "Guarded" (33 percent) to "Angry" (32 percent), and "Indifferent" (10 percent), TIME reported.