Late-night hosts reacted to Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension with the sharpest tools in their kit: comedy and defiance

• Late-night hosts did not mince words when talking about Jimmy Kimmel’s show being suspended.
• Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Fallon talked about the move on Thursday night.
• Disney suspended Kimmel’s show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” indefinitely.

Four show hosts responded with satire and defiance after the suspension of one of their own, Jimmy Kimmel.

On Thursday night, it was the who’s who of late-night comedy: Stephen Colbert, whose own show was not renewed; NBC’s Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, who have both received threats from President Donald Trump; and “The Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart, who has consistently defended his colleagues.

Kimmel’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was suspended indefinitely by Disney on Wednesday under pressure from Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and a prominent company that owns ABC affiliate stations, Nexstar.

Nexstar and another ABC affiliate owner, Sinclair, pulled Kimmel’s show off the air “indefinitely.” Sinclair said the suspension would remain “until formal discussions are held with ABC about the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability.”

The suspension came after Kimmel made comments about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and mocked Trump’s response to the incident. Kimmel’s suspension and the political uproar that followed have raised questions over speech freedom and the First Amendment.

Sinclair also called for Kimmel to apologize to Kirk’s family.

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert, whose namesake late-night show is set to be pulled off the air in May, defended Kimmel during his opening monologue on Thursday night.

He started the show saying, “Tonight, we are all Jimmy Kimmel,” calling the suspension “blatant censorship.”

“The Late Show” posted a clip of Colbert’s comments on Kimmel on its Instagram account. The post was captioned, “The Late Show stands with Jimmy Kimmel and his staff.”

In his monologue, Colbert referenced a report from Rolling Stone on Wednesday about Kimmel and ABC.

“As one source at ABC put it, they were pissing themselves all day. On the bright side, that proves Disney is No. 1 at streaming,” Colbert said.

Colbert then cited an X post that the FCC’s Carr wrote on Wednesday. Carr said it was important for broadcasters to oppose “programming that they determine falls short of community values.”

“Well, you know what my community values are, buster? Freedom of speech,” Colbert said on Thursday, to loud cheers from the audience.

“People across the country are shocked by this blatant assault on the freedom of speech,” he added.

Jimmy Fallon

Jimmy Fallon, the host of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” said in a Thursday episode that he hoped Kimmel’s show would make a comeback.

He started off the segment with a joke: “Well, guys, the big story is that Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC after pressure from the FCC, leaving everyone thinking ‘WTF.'”

Joking about how he and Kimmel share the same first name, Fallon said he woke up to 100 text messages from his father expressing sorrow that his show was canceled.

But then he adopted a somber tone, saying, “But to be honest with you all, I don’t know what’s going on, and no one does.”

“But I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he’s a decent, funny, and loving guy. I hope he comes back,” he said, to loud cheers and applause from the audience.

Jon Stewart

In a Thursday episode of “The Daily Show,” host Jon Stewart adopted a sarcastic and satirical tone while discussing Kimmel’s suspension.

While Stewart typically hosts the show on Mondays, the show announced on Thursday that he would host another episode that night.

“I don’t know who this Johnny Drimmel Live ABC character is. But the point is, our great administration has laid out very clear rules on free speech,” Stewart said in his opening monologue.

He did not directly defend Kimmel in the segment, but he made a series of pointed remarks about Trump, at one point calling the president our “dear leader.”

“We have another fun, hilarious, administration-compliant show,” he said, and pretended to quiet the audience when they laughed.

Seth Meyers

In a Thursday night episode of his series “A Closer Look,” host Seth Meyers said Kimmel’s suspension has become a “big moment in our democracy.”

Joking about the Trump administration’s crackdown on free speech, Meyers said, “Completely unrelated, I just wanna say before we get started here, that I’ve always admired and respected Mr Trump.”

He added that if the audience had ever seen him say anything negative about Trump, it was likely an AI-generated deepfake video.

He got serious later in the segment when he brought up Kimmel again.

“And may I just say, it is a privilege and an honor to call Jimmy Kimmel my friend, in the same way that it’s a privilege and honor to do this show every night,” he said.

“This is a big moment in our democracy, and we must all stand up for the principles of free expression,” he said at the end of the segment. “There’s a reason free speech is in the very first amendment; it stands above all others.”

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