Late-night show hosts including Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and David Letterman have rallied behind Jimmy Kimmel following ABC’s decision to indefinitely suspend his popular late-night show after his comments about the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk. In his opening monologue on Thursday night, Stephen Colbert mocked executives at Disney, ABC’s parent company, for cavering to threats from Brendan Carr, the FCC chairman, when they pulled Kimmel off the air. Colbert also scolded Carr for calling Kimmel’s commentary on the rush to politicize Kirk’s murder an affront to community values. Colbert went on to poke fun at Disney executives, saying that as one source at ABC put it, they were “pissing themselves all day” over the threat of Trump’s administration’s retaliation against the network. Meanwhile, the former president Barack Obama said that the current administration has taken cancel culture to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like. The controversy began after Kimmel suggested that “many in Maga land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.” Within a day, Carr condemned the comments as “truly sick” and suggested ABC could face regulatory consequences. ABC executives are reportedly hoping to find a way to bring Kimmel back soon.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/18/late-night-show-host-kimmel-cancel-colbert-letterman
