{"id":169214,"date":"2025-09-20T06:58:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T06:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/169214\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T06:58:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T06:58:06","slug":"bill-maher-voices-support-for-jimmy-kimmel-takes-shots-at-abc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/169214\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Maher Voices Support For Jimmy Kimmel, Takes Shots At ABC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThis week, Bill Maher<\/a> walked out in front of his live audience to a standing ovation, as the Real Time with Bill Maher<\/a> host addressed ABC<\/a>\u2018s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> Live!, comparing it to his own cancellation over two decades ago by the same network.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI know why you\u2019re happy tonight: I\u2019m still on,\u201d the late-night host said before beginning his monologue.<\/p>\n

\n\tMaher continued, \u201cTalk show hosts are going down like Blockbusters in the \u201990s \u2026 Let me just tell you something, I am not intimidated by the FCC, and if President Trump is watching, I have one thing to say to you: Have you lost weight? You look terrific,\u201d to audience cheers and laughs.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo, that\u2019s not me, and never will be,\u201d Maher added, \u201cbut life is f\u2014ing weird. It was 24 years to the day that I made comments on ABC that got me canceled from that network, and Jimmy Kimmel took my slot at Politically Incorrect. I got canceled before cancel even had a culture.\u201d (In the aftermath of 9\/11, Maher disagreed with the suggestion that the perpetrators were \u201ccowards,\u201d arguing instead that the U.S. was cowardly for \u201clobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away.\u201d<\/a> The comments caused an uproar, leading to major sponsors pulling their ads and local affiliates yanking the program. Afterward, as Maher mentioned, Kimmel was brought in to fill ABC\u2019s late-night role.)<\/p>\n

\n\tMaher\u2019s support for his colleague comes after multiple late-night hosts \u2014 from David Letterman<\/a> to Seth Meyers<\/a> to Jay Leno<\/a> \u2014 decried ABC\u2019s preemption of Jimmy Kimmel Live<\/a>! as an infringement on free speech following host Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s joke<\/a> about Donald Trump<\/a>\u2018s seeming lack of grief over the killing of ultra right-wing spokesman Charlie Kirk: \u201cWe had some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and with everything they can to score political points from it,\u201d he had said, in part.<\/p>\n

\n\tABC\u2019s indefinite suspension of the program came after FCC chair Brendan Carr<\/a> threatened action<\/a> over the joke \u2014 which poked fun at Trump being in the \u201cconstruction\u201d stage of grief for his segueing from a reporter\u2019s question about how he is \u201cholding up\u201d into the remodeling being done on the White House ballroom<\/a> \u2014 and following Nexstar, the largest TV station group in the country, pulling the show for the \u201cforeseeable future.\u201d<\/a> The company later clarified it did so \u201cunilaterally\u201d sans FCC pressure<\/a>. Meanwhile, Sinclair Broadcast Group, the second largest national station operator and largest owner of ABC affiliate stations, said it would not lift the suspension until Kimmel had apologized to Kirk\u2019s family and made a \u201cmeaningful donation\u201d to his conservative nonprofit organization Turning Point USA. As such, the company replaced its Kimmel slot with a tribute to Kirk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, as Trump celebrated the news<\/a>, implying that Meyers and Jimmy Fallon are next up for removal, Democratic leaders penned a joint statement over the matter<\/a>, as the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee vowed he would launch a formal investigation<\/a>. In Hollywood, guilds have reacted with fervor<\/a>, with writers and actors protesting at the Disney lot in Burbank<\/a>, and top talent \u2014 from Damon Lindelof<\/a> to She-Hulk star Tatiana Maslany<\/a> \u2014 either announcing they will not work with Disney in the aftermath or calling for consumer boycotts of properties like Hulu and Disney+. Andor writer and recently minted Emmy winner Dan Gilroy penned a guest column in Deadline denouncing the \u201cvenomous evil\u201d and governmental \u201csiege.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe move by ABC was also blasted by leading conservatives like Ted Cruz<\/a> and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner<\/a>. In the latest development today, an ABC Sacramento affiliate, the site of a protest the day prior, was hit with gunfire<\/a>; no one was injured. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis sh\u2013 ain\u2019t new; it\u2019s worse, we\u2019ll get to that, but ABC, they are steady,\u201d Maher said. \u201cABC stands for Always Be Caving. So, Jimmy, pal, I am with you, I support you, and on the bright side, you don\u2019t have to pretend anymore that you like Disneyland.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMaher continued in his monologue, calling the \u201cintimidation on the right\u201d \u201cso hypocritical<\/a>.\u201d He made several jokes about corporate kowtowing, including how Good Morning America has changed its name to add the postscript \u201ceven the scum who didn\u2019t vote for Trump\u201d and that next year\u2019s Golden Bachelor will be Rudy Giuliani. He added that even Wolf Blitzer would be reporting from \u201cThe Capitulation Room\u201d (CNN\u2019s program, with Blizter and Pamela Brown, is called The Situation Room).<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the show, Maher called out the hosts of The View for ignoring Kimmel\u2019s sidelining<\/a> for the second day in a row \u201cyou know, \u2019cause it\u2019s never been their thing to weigh in on the issues \u2026 it\u2019s just an upbeat party show \u2014 that\u2019s why they hired people named Joy [Behar] and Sunny [Hostin] and Whoopi [Goldberg].\u201d (Yesterday, Carr threatened regulatory scrutiny on the talk show<\/a>, citing the FCC\u2019s equal time rule<\/a> as his reason for considering such action.)<\/p>\n

\n\tMaher noted that he didn\u2019t think what Kimmel said \u201cwas exactly right,\u201d but maintained he \u201cdoesn\u2019t deserve to lose his job over it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added, \u201cIt is a fool\u2019s errand to try to say that these nuts who do these things are any \u2018team\u2019 \u2026 This kid [alleged Kirk shooter Tyler Robinson<\/a>] is in his basement with VR goggles on, getting virtually ass-f\u2014ed by a cartoon wombat [via the game Furry Shades of Gay 3: Still Gayer<\/a>], and you\u2019re gonna put politics into this? This kid doesn\u2019t belong in either party, he belongs in a straitjacket.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tConcluding, Maher addressed Kimmel directly: \u201cPal, you did a great, funny show for two decades; you should be proud of that. If this firing goes for you the way it did for me, you\u2019ll get 23 years on a better network.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week, Bill Maher walked out in front of his live audience to a standing ovation, as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1855,10161,17105,12,88,17114,11575,60021],"class_list":{"0":"post-169214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-abc","9":"tag-bill-maher","10":"tag-brendan-carr","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","14":"tag-jimmy-kimmel-live","15":"tag-real-time-with-bill-maher"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}