Late night hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and Jon Stewart pledged support to Jimmy Kimmel on their shows on Thursday (18.09.25) night.
Stephen Colbert defended Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel Live! has been pulled off air “indefinitely” by ABC over comments the 57-year-old star made about the killing of political campaigner Charlie Kirk, and his fellow talk show presenters have banger out at the “blatant censorship” of the decision.
Opening The Late Show, Stephen – whose own programme is due to end next year – said: “Tonight, we are all Jimmy Kimmel.
“Yesterday, after threats from Trump’s FCC Chair, ABC yanked Kimmel off the air indefinitely. That is blatant censorship.
” It always starts small. Remember, in week one of his presidency, call it Gulf of America. Sure, seems harmless, but with an autocrat, you cannot give an inch.
“If ABC thinks that this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naïve.”
The 61-year-old comic then joked the controversy had overshadowed his Emmy Award win on Sunday (14.09.25).
Brandishing his statuette, he quipped: “To Jimmy, I stand with you and your staff, 100%. But also, you couldn’t let me enjoy this for like one week?”
On the Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon pledged his support to “decent” Jimmy Kimmel and expressed hope his show would return.
He joked at the beginning of his monologue: “The big story is that Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC after pressure from the FCC, leaving everyone thinking, ‘WTF?'”
He then added more seriously: “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, and I hope he comes back.”
The 51-year-old broadcaster joked about concerns late-night shows will be “censored” and vowed to continue covering the president “just like I normally would,” but then a voiceover began dubbing his words with lavish praise for Trump.
Seth dedicated Late Night’s A Closer Look segment to the president’s relationship with free speech and the media and warned ABC’s decision to pull the plug on Jimmy Kimmel Live! was a “big moment in our democracy.
He said of the president: “His administration is pursuing a crackdown on free speech — and completely unrelated, I just want to say, before we get started here, that I’ve always admired and respected Mr. Trump.
“I’ve always believed he was a visionary, innovator, a great president, and an even better golfer. And if you’ve ever seen me say anything negative about him, that’s just AI.”
He then turned serious as he spoke about his friend.
He said: “It is a privilege and an honour to call Jimmy Kimmel my friend in the same way that it’s a privilege and honour to do this show every night.
“I wake up every day, I count my blessings that I live in a country that at least purports to benefit freedom of speech, and we’re gonna keep doing our show the way we’ve always done it: with enthusiasm and integrity.
“We must all stand up for the principles of free expression. There’s a reason free speech is in the very first amendment.”
Jon has only been hosting Monday episodes of The Daily Show lately but he took the reins on Thursday (18.09.25) to reimagine the entire programme in what they believed a “government-approved” version of the show would be.
Midway through the programme, as he recounted President Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK, Jon noted how the US leader had claimed Jimmy was fired for “lack of talent”.
He added: “You may call it free speech in jolly old England, but in America, we have a little thing called the first amendment, and let me tell you how it works.”
He claimed the president kept a talent-o-meter on his desk, which let him know when a presenter’s “talent quotient, measured mostly by niceness to the president” goes below a certain level.
He said: “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 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.”
Later in the show, he said: “I don’t know who this… this… Johnny Drimmel Live ABC character is. But the point is, our great administration has laid out very clear rules on free speech.
“immediately, some naysayers may argue that this administration’s speech concerns are merely a cynical ploy, a thin gruel of a ruse, a smokescreen to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of power and unitary intimidation, principle-less and coldly antithetical to any experiment in a constitutional republic governance. Some people would say that. Not me, though… I think it’s great.”
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