{"id":58441,"date":"2025-10-03T15:36:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/58441\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T15:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:36:07","slug":"jimmy-kimmel-explains-how-he-heard-he-was-being-yanked-off-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/58441\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel explains how he heard he was being yanked off the air"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n When ABC executives told Jimmy Kimmel last month that his show was being pulled off the air<\/a>, the late-night show\u2019s audience was seated, a guest chef had already started making food, the musical guest had performed a warm-up act, and Kimmel was in the bathroom.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt was about 3:00; we tape our show at 4:30,\u201d Kimmel told Stephen Colbert on an episode of \u201cThe Late Show\u201d Tuesday. \u201cI\u2019m in my office, typing away as I usually do. I get a phone call. It\u2019s ABC. They say they want to talk to me. This is unusual: They, as far as I knew, didn\u2019t even know I was doing a show previous to this.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Kimmel said he had five writers in his office at the time, and the only private place where he could take the call was the bathroom.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSo I go into the bathroom, and I\u2019m on the phone with the ABC executives. and they say, \u2018Listen, we want to take the temperature down.
We\u2019re concerned about what you\u2019re going to say tonight, and we decided that the best route is to take the show off the air.<\/a>\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The audience booed, and Kimmel joked: \u201cThat\u2019s what I said: I started booing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI said, \u2018I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a good idea,\u2019 and they said, \u2018Well, we think it\u2019s a good idea.\u2019 Then there was a vote, and I lost the vote.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Kimmel said he called some of the show\u2019s executive producers into his office to share the news, and he turned white.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI thought, that\u2019s it. It\u2019s over, it\u2019s over. I was like, I\u2019m never coming back on the air.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Kimmel said the show had to send the seated audience home. Chef Christian Petroni\u2019s prepared meatballs and polenta that he had been cooking before the taping went to waste. Future musical guest Howard Jones, however, taped a song for a future episode: \u201cThings Can Only Get Better,\u201d which Kimmel acknowledged was ironic.\n <\/p>\n

\n ABC suspended Kimmel\u2019s show in mid-September for a few days after a controversial monologue that mentioned Charlie Kirk\u2019s suspected killer \u2013 and the right-wing reaction to Kirk\u2019s murder. Two days later, FCC Chair Brendan Carr, on a conservative podcast, threatened to pull ABC affiliate broadcast licenses in response. Then Nexstar \u2014 the station group which airs \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d in approximately two dozen markets \u2014 announced they would not air the show. Another affiliate, Sinclair, followed suit. And hours later, Kimmel took ABC executives\u2019 call in the bathroom.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kimmel returned to the air the following Tuesday with an emotional monologue<\/a> \u2014 and mega-ratings<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Colbert, who also appeared as a guest on Brooklyn taping of \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live\u201d Tuesday, said he could empathize with Kimmel. The CBS star said executives had made the decision to end his show<\/a> while Colbert was on vacation. His manager, James Dixon, whom he shares with Kimmel, waited until Colbert returned to share the news.\n <\/p>\n

\n Recounting his desire to tell his audience about the news immediately \u2014 despite the fact that \u201cThe Late Show\u201d is set to run through the spring of 2026 \u2014 Colbert told Kimmel that at the end of the following show, he asked his audience to remain in their seats for one more segment. But he had trouble delivering his lines and flubbed the line \u2014 twice.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was so nervous about doing it right, \u2018cause there was nothing in the prompter. I was just speaking off the cuff,\u201d Colbert said. \u201cThey started going, \u2018Come on Stephen, you can do it,\u201d because I always messed up on the sentence that told them what was happening. And then I got to the sentence that actually told them what\u2019s happening, and they didn\u2019t laugh.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Although CBS owner Paramount said the cancellation of \u201cThe Late Show\u201d was strictly a business decision, many media critics \u2014 and Kimmel \u2014 questioned that rationale, and some have said it was likely a political decision to appease the Trump administration that needed to approve Paramount\u2019s merger with Skydance.\n <\/p>\n

\n Both Colbert and Kimmel have been frequent and unabashed critics of President Donald Trump and his administration. Trump publicly celebrated when Colbert was canceled, saying in a social media post that Kimmel and NBC\u2019s Seth Meyers were \u201cnext.\u201d Trump again celebrated when Kimmel was pulled off the air but criticized \u2014 and threatened \u2014 ABC when it brought him back on.\n <\/p>\n

\n Meyers made an appearance on Kimmel\u2019s show Tuesday, and the three late night hosts posed for a photograph posted to Instagram<\/a>. Kimmel added the caption: \u201cHi Donald!\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Kimmel joked with Colbert that Tuesday\u2019s taping was, \u201cThe show the FCC doesn\u2019t want you to see.\u201d He introduced Colbert as, \u201cThe Emmy-winning late-night talk show host who, thanks to the Trump administration, is now available for a limited-time only.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Kimmel quipped that he was \u201cso honored to be here with my fellow no-talent, late-night loser.\u201d As for the rationale for inviting Colbert onto his program: \u201cWe thought it might be a fun way to drive the president nuts.\u201d\n <\/p>\n