Late-night hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert opened their shows Thursday by addressing the news of Jimmy Kimmel Live! being taken off the air “indefinitely” following remarks host Jimmy Kimmel made on Monday night about the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
On Wednesday, ABC suspended Kimmel’s late-night show after comments he made about Kirk’s killing led a group of ABC-affiliated stations to say they would not air the show.
Earlier on Thursday, The Daily Show announced on social media that Stewart would step in as host. He typically only hosts the Monday edition of the program.
“From Comedy Central, it’s the all-new, government-approved Daily Show, with your patriotically obedient host, Jon Stewart,” the show kicked off.
Halfway through the show, Stewart referenced Trump’s state visit to the U.K. this week and mentioned Trump’s comments about Kimmel during a press conference on Thursday with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, Starmer’s country house in the English town of Aylesbury.
When asked about the dismissal of Kimmel and free speech in America, Trump said, “Well, Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else.”
“He said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk. And Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had very bad ratings and they should have fired him a long time ago,” Trump continued. “So, you know, you can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.”
Stewart began: “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.”
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He then went into an explanation about a “talent-o-meter,” which he joked was a device on Trump’s desk that lets him know when someone’s “talent quotient, measured mostly by niceness to the president,” reaches a low level.
“At which point, the FCC must be notified to threaten the acquisition prospects for billion-dollar mergers of network affiliates,” Stewart said. “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 licences directly. It’s basic science.”
Stewart went on to joke that he doesn’t know who the “Johnny Drimmel Live ABC character is,” but “the point is, our great administration has laid out very clear rules on free speech.”
“Now, 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,” Stewart said. “Not me, though…. I think it’s great.”
Stewart also interviewed journalist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa and asked for tips on coping with the current moment.
Ressa recounted how she and her colleagues at the news site Rappler “just kept going” when she was faced with 11 arrest warrants in one year under then-Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte.
“We just kept doing our jobs. We just kept putting one foot in front of the other,” Ressa said.
Colbert, who recently announced the cancellation of The Late Show, told his audience Thursday that he stands with Kimmel and his staff.
“And if ABC thinks this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive and clearly, they’ve never read the children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Kimmel. And to Jimmy, just let me say, I stand with you and your staff 100 per cent,” Colbert said.
He also responded to remarks Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr made about the importance for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming “they determine falls short of community values.”
“Well, you know what my community values are, buster? Freedom of speech,” Colbert said.
On Thursday, Jimmy Fallon opened his Tonight Show with a monologue addressing Kimmel’s suspension.
“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.”
ABC, which has aired Jimmy Kimmel Live! since 2003, did not immediately explain why it suspended the show on Wednesday. But its announcement came after broadcasters Nexstar and Sinclair said they would stop airing Kimmel’s show on their ABC-affiliated stations.
Carr had also warned that the network and its local affiliates could face repercussions if Kimmel was not punished.
Carr had called Kimmel’s comments “truly sick” and said the comedian appeared to intentionally try to mislead the public about the alleged shooter’s political leanings. He later applauded the decisions to stop airing Kimmel’s show.
In a statement shared on social media, Sinclair cited “problematic comments regarding the murder of Charlie Kirk” in its decision. Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, called Kimmel’s comments “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse.”
Sinclair called on Kimmel to “issue a direct apology to the Kirk family” and asked him to “make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA.”
The broadcast group also announced that ABC stations will air a special in remembrance of Kirk on Friday, during the Jimmy Kimmel Live! timeslot.
In a post on his Truth Social platform Wednesday night, Trump applauded ABC for “finally having the courage to do what had to be done” and claimed that Kimmel “has ZERO talent.”
Kimmel, whose contract with the Walt Disney Co.-owned network expires in May 2026, did not immediately comment on the suspension.
— with files from The Associated Press
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