Late night hosts Thursday night stood in support of Jimmy Kimmel amid ABC’s decision to “indefinitely” suspend Kimmel Live! for remarks he made about the conservative response to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Newly minted Emmy winner Stephen Colbert — whose own show will end in May after CBS canceled it in July, in the wake of parent company Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Trump — on Thursday slammed the “blatant censorship,” welcoming viewers by saying, “I’m your host, Stephen Colbert, but tonight, we are all Jimmy Kimmel.”
“Late Night” host Seth Meyers denounced what he categorized as a “crackdown on free speech” while Jon Stewart did a more than 20-minute segment on free speech in an “all new government-approved” iteration of “The Daily Show.”
“Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon acknowledged, “A lot of people are worried that we won’t keep saying what we want to say or that we’ll be censored,” but he does know that Kimmel is “a decent, funny and loving guy and I hope he comes back.”
Those remarks came hours after news that, last minute, Fallon pulled out of a panel he was supposed to sit on at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival.
Disney-owned ABC “indefinitely” yanked “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from airwaves Wednesday, two days after he challenged President Trump’s assertion that Tyler Robinson — who has been charged with assassinating the 31-year-old conservative activist last week in Utah — ascribed to “the radical left.”
