Thursday night (18 September) saw the likes of Stephen Colbert<\/a>, Jon Stewart<\/a>, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon all defiantly jump to Kimmel\u2019s defence, with Colbert calling it \u201cblatant censorship\u201d and Fallon saying he \u201chopes he comes back\u201d.<\/p>\n ABC pulled Kimmel\u2019s show<\/a> this week over comments he made during his opening monologue two days prior in which he made implications about the suspected gunman\u2019s political leanings.<\/p>\n Colbert began his show<\/a> by saying he \u201c100 per cent\u201d stands with the star. \u201cWith an autocrat, you cannot give an inch,\u201d he added. \u201cIf ABC thinks this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive.\u201d<\/p>\n The 61-year-old said Kimmel\u2019s show was \u201cyanked off air\u201d shortly after FCC chairman Brendan Carr<\/a> said that Kimmel\u2019s remarks were \u201ctruly sick\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis decision came after senior executives at ABC, Disney and affiliates convened emergency meetings, during which multiple execs felt that Kimmel had not actually said anything over the line, but the threat of Trump administration retaliation loomed. As one source at ABC put it, \u2018They were p***ing themselves all day,\u2019\u201d Colbert said, citing a Rolling Stone<\/a> article.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s late-night show has been indefinitely pulled (ABC)<\/p>\n Meyers said on his NBC Show: \u201cTrump promised to end government censorship and bring back free speech, and he’s doing the opposite, and it has experts worried that we are rapidly devolving into repressive autocracy in the style of Russia or Hungary, much faster than anyone could have predicted.\u201d<\/p>\n “I wake up every day, I count my blessings that I live in a country that at least purports to value freedom of speech, and we’re gonna keep doing our show the way we’ve always done it, with enthusiasm and integrity,” he added.<\/p>\n On The Tonight Show, Fallon joked that he \u201cwoke up to 100 messages from my dad saying, ‘sorry they cancelled your show.'”<\/p>\n The 51-year-old went on: “To be honest with you all, I don’t know what is going on. And no one does. But I do know Jimmy Kimmel and he is a decent, funny and loving guy, and I hope he comes back.\u201d<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Jon Stewart <\/a>took a different approach, introducing himself as a \u201cpatriotically obedient host\u201d and performing a satirical monologue about free speech<\/a>, in which he called The Daily Show \u201cfun, hilarious, administration-compliant\u201d.<\/p>\n In a rare mid-week edition of his show, Stewart said: “I don’t know who this ‘Johnny Drimmel Live’ ABC character is, but the point is, our great administration has laid out very clear rules on free speech.<\/p>\n “Some naysayers may argue that this administration’s speech concerns are merely a cynical ploy, a thin gruel of a ruse, a smoke screen to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of power and unitary intimidation, principleless and coldly antithetical to any experiment in a constitutional republic governance,” he said. <\/p>\n He then referred to Trump as \u201cfather\u201d and \u201cdear leader\u201d as he jokingly praised the president and his recent state trip to the UK.<\/a><\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and Jimmy Fallon react to Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension (NBC\/CBS\/Comedy Central)<\/p>\n Kimmel\u2019s suspension has received widespread condemnation<\/a> with former president Barack Obama criticising the Trump administration for \u201cthreatening regulatory action against media companies\u201d.<\/p>\n Former talk show host and comedian David Letterman said that the move was silly and ridiculous. \u201cYou can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works,\u201d he told The Atlantic<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Jimmy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758306191_983_newFile.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Stephen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/LN.png\")
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