Mr Kielty\u2019s message, posted on the Late Late Show\u2019s social media account after the show, addressed the controversy surrounding Mr Kimmel whose late night TV show Jimmy Kimmel Live! was taken off air \u201cindefinitely\u201d by television network ABC.<\/p>\n
It followed comments he made about the death of American conservative activist Charlie Kirk last week, though critics of the decision claim the company caved to threats from the Trump administration\u2019s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr, who pressured ABC to “take action” against Mr Kimmel, otherwise there would be \u201cadditional work\u201d to be done.<\/p>\n
Mr Kimmel also mocked the way Donald Trump responded to Mr Kirk\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the Late Late Show, Mr Kielty spoke resolutely into the camera, inviting Mr Kimmel to Ireland to practice the freedom to speak his mind.<\/p>\n
“Hey Jimmy, it\u2019s Patrick Kielty saying a big hello from Studio 4 of RT\u00c9 here in Dublin, Ireland, home to the Late Late Show for over 60 years,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n
“Now, during that time there have of course been many in power who have wanted our show off air, and yet our bosses have never considered shutting us down,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n
“Tonight we\u2019re extending the hand of free speech and friendship to let you know that you\u2019re always welcome here.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if you ever need a studio or a desk or an audience or a band, we\u2019re here for you.<\/p>\n
“And most importantly of all, Jimmy, this is Ireland, so we can promise you can say whatever the f**k you want,\u201d he concluded, met by rapturous applause from the Late Late audience.<\/p>\n
Mr Kimmel\u2019s suspension follows the decision by rival US television network CBS to cancel comedian Stephen Colbert\u2019s The Late Show two weeks after the network\u2019s parent company Paramount paid President Trump a settlement worth a reported $16 million (\u20ac13.6 million) to end a defamation lawsuit against him.<\/p>\n
Mr Colbert himself described this week\u2019s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! as a “blatant assault on freedom of speech”, while fellow late night host Seth Myers declared it “a privilege and honour to call Jimmy Kimmel my friend”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr Kielty\u2019s message, posted on the Late Late Show\u2019s social media account after the show, addressed the controversy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,1286,9034,6085,7539],"class_list":["post-32755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-keith-kelly","tag-patrick-kielty","tag-rte","tag-the-late-late-show"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}