{"id":25643,"date":"2025-09-19T13:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T13:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/25643\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T13:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T13:34:07","slug":"jimmy-kimmel-show-suspension-donald-trump-as-great-grandfather-late-night-hosts-address-free-speech-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/25643\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel show suspension: Donald Trump as \u2018great-grandfather\u2019? Late-Night hosts address free speech crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon began their Thursday late-night shows blending humour and support for suspended ABC host Jimmy Kimmel<\/a>. Stewart used satire to criticise ABC\u2019s indefinite suspension of \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d after Kimmel\u2019s remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, AP reported.<\/p>\n

Colbert took a more serious tone, describing the suspension as \u201cblatant censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also Read: Stephen Colbert taunts US President after Emmy win: \u2018Donald Trump doesn\u2019t have one\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Fallon featured guests Jude Law, journalist Tom Llamas, and actor-singer Jonathan Groff, but none of them spoke about Kimmel\u2019s situation.<\/p>\n

Stewart and Colbert interviewed guests who could address censorship concerns raised by Kimmel\u2019s suspension. Journalist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa spoke to Stewart.<\/p>\n

Also Read: Jimmy Kimmel controversy: Will Disney revive ABC’s late-night show? Report hints at key meet<\/a><\/p>\n

When Stewart asked Ressa, the author of \u201cHow to Stand Up to a Dictator,\u201d for tips on coping with the current moment, Ressa recounted how she and her colleagues at the news site Rappler \u201cjust kept going\u201d when she was faced with 11 arrest warrants in one year under Philippine then-President Rodrigo Duterte.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just kept doing our jobs. We just kept putting one foot in front of the other,\u201d Ressa said.<\/p>\n

Stewart makes special appearance to skewer Kimmel suspension<\/p>\n

Stewart’s show opened with a voiceover promising adherence to the party line.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have another fun, hilarious administration-compliant show,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

He lavished praise on the president and satirised his criticism of large cities and his deployment of the National Guard to fight their crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing to you tonight from the real (expletive), the crime-ridden cesspool that is New York City. It is a tremendous disaster like no one\u2019s ever seen before. Someone\u2019s National Guard should invade this place, am I right?\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n

Also Read: ‘Against Trump’s Bullying’: Free Speech Debate SHAKES U.S. After Jimmy Kimmel Fired Over Kirk Joke<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Daily Show\u201d set was refashioned with decorative gold engravings, in a parody of gold accents Trump has added to the fireplace, doorway arches, walls and other areas of the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

Stewart fidgeted nervously as though he was worried about speaking the correct talking points. When the audience members reacted with an \u201cawww\u201d he whispered, \u201cWhat are you doing? Shut up. You\u2019re going to (expletive) blow this for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He took on a more stilted tone when he started describing Trump\u2019s visit to the United Kingdom, calling the president \u201cour great father.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGaze upon him. With a gait even more majestic than that of the royal horses that prance before him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Also Read: David Letterman comes out in support of his late-night show successor Stephen Colbert \u2013 \u2018You can’t spell CBS without BS\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Stewart normally hosts only on Mondays. The Emmy winner helmed \u201cThe Daily Show\u201d from 1999 through 2015, delivering sharp, satirical takes on politics and current events and interviews with newsmakers. He returned to host once a week during the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election.<\/p>\n

Fallon opened his \u201cTonight Show\u201d monologue addressing Kimmel\u2019s suspension. \u201cTo be honest with you all, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on. And no one does. But I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he\u2019s a decent, funny and loving guy, and I hope he comes back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swift suspension after remarks on Kirk\u2019s assassination<\/p>\n

Kimmel made several remarks about the reaction to Kirk’s killing on \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d Monday and Tuesday nights, including that \u201cmany in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.\u201d<\/p>\n

ABC suspended Kimmel’s show after a group of ABC-affiliated stations said it would not air the show, and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said his agency had a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading misinformation.<\/p>\n

‘The Late Show’ hosts past and present address suspension<\/p>\n

Colbert started his monologue on Thursday with the animated song \u201cBe Our Guest\u201d from Disney\u2019s \u201cBeauty and the Beast,\u201d but replaced the lyrics with \u201cShut your trap. Shut your trap.\u201d<\/p>\n

He later addressed Kimmel directly, saying that he stands with him and his staff. \u201cIf ABC thinks that this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also responded to remarks Carr made that it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming \u201cthey determine falls short of community values.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you know what my community values are, buster? Freedom of speech,\u201d Colbert said to loud applause from his audience.<\/p>\n

When Colbert talked with New Yorker editor David Remnick about Kimmel’s suspension, he said, \u201cWhat we are seeing now is the government acting at the direction of the president of the United States to put pressure on, to manipulate, to silence and even to shut down institutions of the free word.”<\/p>\n

David Letterman, Colbert’s predecessor on \u201cThe Late Show,\u201d lamented the networks’ moves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel bad about this, because we all see where see this is going, correct? It\u2019s managed media,\u201d Letterman said during an appearance Thursday at The Atlantic Festival 2025 in New York. \u201cIt\u2019s no good. It\u2019s silly. It\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that people shouldn\u2019t be fired just because they don\u2019t \u201csuck up\u201d to what Letterman called \u201can authoritarian\u201d president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon began their Thursday late-night shows blending humour and support for suspended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[5470,146,22777,85,46,20334,4176,22036,22778,22779,6676,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-25643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-censorship","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-free-speech","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-jimmy-fallon","14":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","15":"tag-jon-stewart","16":"tag-late-night-hosts","17":"tag-media-freedom","18":"tag-stephen-colbert","19":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}