Stephen Colbert is the latest celebrity to speak out against ABC's shocking decision to take Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show off the air indefinitely, following his comments on the death of conservative political podcaster Charlie Kirk. The move has been widely criticized as an act of censorship and comes just two months after Stephen announced that his own show would wrap up in May 2026, following a speech he made calling out CBS's parent company for their $16 million settlement with Donald Trump.
The 61-year-old got candid about the news of his colleague's show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which has been a staple of American TV since 2003. "I'll say this for my network. They wouldn't have done this," he declared during Thursday's taping of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, per CNBC. "Now, regardless of what you think, that has already been done and how that looks, this is weak. This is blatant censorship."
"With an autocrat, you cannot give an inch," he said, adding, "Jimmy, I stand with you and your staff 100%." He then dedicated the show to free speech and to the TV personality's entire team. On Monday night, Jimmy made a comment suggesting that far-right figures were trying to pin Charlie's death onto the political left, after the podcaster was shot and killed at a Utah University event.
"We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it," the star said. He then pointed out that Donald's response to Charlie's death was odd; when the President was asked his thoughts on the tragedy mere days later, he decided to discuss the White House ballroom construction instead.
Later on Jon Stewart hosted a special edition of The Daily Show on Thursday, portraying what he described as a “patriotically obedient host” and satirically admonishing his studio audience for booing clips of US President Donald Trump. He closed his opening monologue by stating: "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."
Late Night with Seth Meyers followed a similar tact on NBC, with the host telling his audience: "The (Trump) administration is pursuing a crackdown on free speech… completely unrelated, I just want to say before we get started here that I’ve always admired and respected Mr Trump."
He continued: "I’ve always believed he was… a visionary, an innovator, a great president, an even better golfer. And if you’ve ever seen me say anything negative about him, that’s just AI."
This comment sparked the ire of the Federal Communications Commission head, Brendan Carr, who called for Jimmy's show to be taken off the air. It also prompted Nexstar Media Group to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! in a shocking move from the company. In July, Stephen announced that his late-night show had been canceled by CBS, with many speculating that it was a punishment for calling out their parent company, Paramount, after they settled a lawsuit with the President.
Following the announcement, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved an $8 billion deal, which merged Paramount Global with Skydance Media and placed government conditions on the network's news division. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said that the conditions of the deal were a "never-before-seen form of government control over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment."
Despite this, Paramount Global and CBS maintained in a statement that the decision was "purely…financial against a challenging backdrop in late night" and "not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount." Jimmy was one of the first to speak out in support of his peer after the news broke, taking to Instagram to write, "Love you Stephen. [Expletive] you and all your Sheldons CBS."
At the time, Donald wrote on Truth Social that he couldn't have been happier to see Stephen go. "I absolutely love that Colbert got fired," he said. "His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! [Fox News late-night host] Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined." Both Stephen and Jimmy are vocal critics of Donald and his administration.