Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers hosted their respective late-night exhibits and commented on Jimmy Kimmel’s ouster.
A number of late-night TV present hosts on Thursday addressed ABC’s resolution to droop fellow host Jimmy Kimmel after he made feedback in regards to the late conservative influencer Charlie Kirk earlier within the week.
Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers hosted their respective late-night exhibits on Sept. 18, with most expressing solidarity with Kimmel. Earlier this week, Kimmel made a press release on Monday’s monologue, saying that “the MAGA gang [were] desperately making an attempt to characterize this child who murdered Charlie Kirk as something aside from one among them and doing every little thing they will to attain political factors from it.”
Prosecutors and officers say the suspect held left-wing views.
CBS’s Stephen Colbert began his present by stating that “we’re all Jimmy Kimmel,” and mentioned that he believed Kimmel’s elimination was a “blatant assault on freedom of speech.”
Colbert had his personal present canceled earlier this yr by CBS executives, with the community saying that it was for monetary causes. It’s going to finish in Could 2026.
Meyers, the host of NBC’s “Late Evening,” began his present by saying the Trump administration is “pursuing a crackdown on free speech.”
“It’s a privilege and honor to name Jimmy Kimmel my pal, in the identical means it’s a privilege and honor to do that present each evening,” he additionally mentioned.
Kimmel’s suspension was carried out by ABC, which is owned by Disney, after broadcasting networks Sinclair and Nexstar mentioned they wouldn’t carry the late-night present on their stations following his feedback about Kirk and the suspected murderer.
The Federal Communications Fee (FCC) has not taken any motion in opposition to ABC in response to Kimmel’s feedback, in accordance with an Epoch Occasions overview. Its chairman, Brendan Carr, mentioned this week that ABC ought to take motion in opposition to Kimmel, whereas he famous that ABC, NBC, and CBS are over-the-air broadcasters that use public airwaves and are topic to particular guidelines that require them to serve the “public curiosity.”
Carr, who has mentioned that cable information networks reminiscent of Fox Information and CNN are usually not topic to the identical guidelines, mentioned in an interview with CNBC on Thursday that Kimmel seemed to be deceptive the general public along with his feedback on Monday.
Except for Colbert and Meyers, NBC’s Jimmy Fallon mentioned that Kimmel is “an honest, humorous, and loving man,” whereas each he and Jon Stewart of “The Day by day Present” used sarcasm to criticize the Trump administration on their respective exhibits.
“Now some naysayers might argue that this administration’s speech considerations are merely a cynical ploy, a skinny gruel of a ruse, a smoke display screen to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of energy and unitary intimidation, principleless, and coldly antithetical … to any experiment in a constitutional republic governance,” Stewart mentioned. “Some individuals would say that.”
President Donald Trump instructed reporters within the UK that he believed Kimmel was sacked by ABC because of “very unhealthy scores” together along with his remarks about Kirk. “He was fired for a scarcity of expertise,” Trump mentioned.
Whereas hailing Kimmel’s suspension, Trump additionally pointed to Colbert’s scores in a submit on Reality Social on Wednesday, whereas calling for the ousters of Fallon and Meyers.
“Their scores are additionally horrible. Do it NBC,” he wrote.
Kimmel has not commented on the matter. The Epoch Occasions has contacted ABC for remark.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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