On CBS, The Late Show presenter Colbert said, external: “To Jimmy, I say I stand with you and your staff 100%.”
He said Kimmel’s suspension was “blatant censorship” and the “latest and boldest action in a long campaign against media critics”.
Colbert has had his own show cancelled, which CBS said in July was “purely a financial decision”, but which some observers have linked to a looming federal decision on a merger involving CBS’s parent company Paramount.
Kimmel’s removal came after Nexstar Media, one of America’s largest TV station owners, said it would not air Kimmel’s show “for the foreseeable future” because his remarks had been “offensive and insensitive”. Nexstar is also currently awaiting federal approval for a separate takeover deal.
“So a company apparently capitulating to the whims of the president in order to ensure their merger goes through – has that ever happened before?” Colbert joked.
“Everything is about corporate relationships.”