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Late-night hosts are going public with their feelings about Jimmy Kimmel‘s ABC preemption following his comments about the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, beginning with Stephen Colbert.
The host opened Thursday’s episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert by showing his support for Kimmel. A clip of his monologue was posted to social media ahead of the broadcast with the caption “The Late Show stands with Jimmy Kimmel and his staff.”
During his monologue, Colbert cited FFC Chair Brendan Carr as saying that Kimmel’s behavior fell short of “community values,” to which the host replied, “You know what my community values are, buster? Freedom of speech!” He waited for the crowd’s uproarious cheering to subside before continuing: “Or as Alexander Hamilton called it, ‘Hakuna Matata.’” He then acknowledged that “people across the country are shocked by this blatant assault on the freedom of speech.”
Watch Colbert’s show of support below:
Seth Meyers also discussed the situation during Thursday’s “A Closer Look” segment on The Late Show With Seth Meyers, both standing with Kimmel and doubling down on the importance of free speech.
“Let me 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 an honor to do this show every night,” he said at the end of the segment. “I wake up every day and count my blessings that I live in a country that at least purports to value freedom of speech, and we’re going to keep doing our show the way we’ve always done it — with enthusiasm and integrity.” (This was followed, of course, by a fart noise. And it was hilarious.)
Struggling to collect himself after cutting the tension (and the cheese) with that aforementioned fart joke, Meyers continued: “This is a pivotal … moment in our democracy, and we must all stand up for the principles of free expression. There’s a reason free speech is in the very First Amendment. It stands above all others.”
Watch Meyers’ full speech below:
On Wednesday, Kimmel’s ABC late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! was “preempted indefinitely,” after Nexstar — which owns 33 ABC affiliates nationwide, including stations in Nashville, New Orleans and other smaller markets — decided not to air the show in light of Kimmel’s comments.
“Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets,” Nexstar said in a statement.
“Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views or values of the local communities in which we are located,” Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, told Variety. “Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”
Kimmel spoke about Kirk’s murder in his monologue on Monday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, implying that the shooter was affiliated with right-wing causes: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” FCC chairman Brendan Carr quickly took issue with his comments, threatening to penalize the stations airing Kimmel’s show if they don’t “change conduct and take action.”
