Late-night show hosts Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon and former host David Letterman have all rallied behind Jimmy Kimmel following ABC’s decision to indefinitely suspend his popular late-night show after his comments about the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk.
In his opening monologue on Thursday night, Stephen Colbert mocked executives at Disney, ABC’s parent company, for caving to threats from Brendan Carr, the FCC chairman, when they pulled Kimmel off the air.
In an excerpt posted on Instagram before broadcast, Colbert also scolded Carr for calling Kimmel’s commentary on the rush to politicize Kirk’s murder an affront to community values. “Well, you know what my community values are, Buster?” Colbert asked. “Freedom of speech.”
“People across the country are shocked by this blatant assault on the freedom of speech,” Colbert added. He poked fun at Disney executives, saying: “As one source at ABC put it, they were pissing themselves all day” over the threat of Trump’s administration’s retaliation against the network. “On the bright side, that proves Disney is No 1 in streaming,” he joked.
In a separate video, the Late Show lampooned ABC parent company Disney, adapting a song from its animated hit Beauty and the Beast. In a message to employees at Disney, ABC, ESPN and Hulu, character Lumière’s lyrics in the song Be Our Guest were changed to say “shut your trap, we are warning you to cut the crap”.
“Patriotically obedient host” Jon Stewart, meanwhile, stepped in to present “the all-new, government-approved Daily Show”, which he normally only hosts on Mondays. On a newly gold set – to match the Oval Office’s new aesthetic – Stewart struck a playfully sycophantic tone,
Referring to Trump’s comment overnight that “Kimmel is not a talented person”, Stewart joked that Trump had a “Talent-O-Meter” to measure when a performer’s “niceness to the president goes below a certain level.”
“At which point, the FCC must be notified to threaten the acquisition prospects for billion dollar mergers of network affiliates. These affiliates are then asked to give ultimatums to the even larger mega corporation that controls the flow of state approved content, or the FCC can just choose to threaten those licenses directly. It’s basic science. Read your Constitution!” he said to applause.
Highlighting Donald Trump Jr and House speaker Mike Johnson criticising their political opponents for calling Trump’s administration “fascist”, Stewart played clips of Trump calling Democrats “fascists”, “animals” and “demonic”.
In response to comments by Republicans that politically motivated violence was no laughing matter after Kirk’s death, Stewart showed clips of Republicans and conservatives mocking the 2022 hammer attack on house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi, which left him with a fractured skull.
Stewart then interviewed the Filipino Nobel Peace prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa who was jailed in the Philippines in 2020 for her journalism criticising former president Rodrigo Duterte, who she said “collapsed our institutions in six months.”
“Do you think it is weird it has taken Trump eight [months]?” Stewart asked.
“I think he did it in the first 100 days,” Ressa replied, describing Trump’s dismantling of institutions that could stand up to his rule as “identical” to what happened in the Philippines.
The NBC late-night host Seth Meyers made light of fears that he might be next in line to be canceled, starting his show on Thursday by pausing to say that as “[Trump’s] administration is pursuing a crack down on free speech … completely unrelated, I just want to say before we get started here that I’ve always admired and respected Mr Trump”.
As his audience laughed, Meyers continued: “I’ve always believed he was – no, no, no – a visionary, an innovator, a great president, an even better golfer. And if you’ve ever seen me say anything negative about him, that’s just AI.”
In his opening monologue, Jimmy Fallon joked, “I woke up to 100 messages from my dad saying, ‘sorry they cancelled your show’.”
“To be honest with you all, I don’t know what is going on. And no one does. But I do know Jimmy Kimmel and he is a decent, funny and loving guy, and I hope he comes back,” he said to applause.
Earlier on Thursday, veteran TV host David Letterman also condemned ABC’s decision while speaking at a festival for the Atlantic magazine.
“I feel bad about this because we all see where this is going,” Letterman said. “It’s managed media. And it’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous. And you can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works.”
The statements come amid growing criticism against big media companies such as ABC and Paramount over their decisions to cancel popular shows including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert earlier.
Trump has repeatedly accused mainstream networks of unfair coverage. Speaking on Air Force One on Thursday, Trump claimed – without providing evidence – that “97% [of major US networks are] against me”, adding: “Again, 97% negative, and yet I won easily. I won all seven swing states … They give me only bad press. I mean they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their licenses should be taken away.”
Such show cancellations have been widely regarded as part of a broader trend where major media companies, eager to protect their business interests, are increasingly aligning with rightwing views supported by Trump. This shift, which reflects a growing chill across media networks, has drawn criticism from the public and Democratic lawmakers who feel the media is becoming more submissive to Trump’s White House at the expense of free speech.
The controversy began after Kimmel, in a recent broadcast, suggested that “many in Maga land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk”. Within a day, Carr condemned the comments as “truly sick” and suggested ABC could face regulatory consequences.
The blowback on ABC and Disney on Thursday was swift, and ABC executives are reportedly hoping to find a way to bring Kimmel back soon.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that Bob Iger, the Disney CEO, and Dana Walden, Disney Entertainment co-chair, agreed to take Kimmel’s show off the air on Wednesday and find a way to bring him back later, after struggling to agree on how to address the social media furor that erupted over Kimmel’s comments about Kirk.
Reaction to Kimmel’s monologue had reached a fever pitch on Wednesday, including death threats that raised concerns for the safety of Kimmel and his staff, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The late-night host was prepared to make a statement, but Kimmel and Disney representatives could not find language that they agreed would not further inflame the situation.
The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.
If you have something to share on this subject, you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.
Secure Messaging in the Guardian app
The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.
If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select ‘Secure Messaging’.
SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post
If you can safely use the Tor network without being observed or monitored, you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform.
Finally, our guide at theguardian.com/tips lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.
