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Outgoing “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert paid tribute to his fallen colleague Jimmy Kimmel after ABC pulled the host off the air.
“I’m your host Stephen Colbert, but tonight we are all Jimmy Kimmel,” the CBS host began his show Thursday night.
Colbert called ABC’s move to yank Kimmel’s show “blatant censorship.”
“And it always starts small,” Colbert said. “Remember, like in week one of his presidency, ‘Gulf of America.’ Call it ‘Gulf of America.’ Sure, it seems harmless, but with an autocrat, you cannot give an inch!”
“And if ABC thinks this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive,” Colbert warned the rival network.
Colbert told Kimmel, “I stand with you and your staff 100%,” but griped that he couldn’t let him enjoy his Emmy win “for like one week.”
He went on to shrug off Kimmel’s comments about the accused Charlie Kirk assassin, suggesting Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair’s Brendan Carr’s condemnation was unwarranted and insisting what Kimmel said wasn’t so “provocative.”
Colbert also slammed Carr’s threat to Disney and accused him of being a hypocrite, citing a 2020 social media post decrying the censoring of political satire, including “late-night comedians.”
Colbert pointed to Nexstar Media Group’s announcement that its ABC affiliates would preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and noted the company’s forthcoming merger would need approval from the Trump administration.
“So a company apparently capitulating to the whims of the president in order to ensure their merger goes through. Has that ever happened before?” he asked with a wink and a nod.
CBS previously announced it would end “The Late Show” in May 2026, just days after parent company Paramount settled President Donald Trump’s lawsuit—a development critics have linked to Paramount’s $8 billion merger with Skydance Media.
On Monday, Kimmel suggested that Kirk’s alleged assassin, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was part of the “MAGA gang” despite reports he had a left-wing ideology, which was later reaffirmed in Tuesday’s indictment.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang 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,” Kimmel told his audience.
He also mocked Trump over an exchange he had with a reporter about Kirk’s death, saying, “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of somebody he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK?”
Disney had faced mounting pressure from ABC affiliate stations around the country as well as the FCC over its handling of Kimmel. The company ultimately decided Wednesday it would preempt his show indefinitely.
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