Just hours before Stephen Colbert was set to record tonight’s episode of CBS’ “The Late Show,” he got the good news: Disney had announced that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will return on Tuesday.
“We do, like, 160 of these a year or something, and when I have the chance, it’s always nice to start the show with some good news,” Colbert said in opening Monday’s episode of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” “Well, just a few hours before we taped this broadcast, we got word that our long national late night-mare is over, because Disney announced that ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ will return to air on ABC tomorrow, Tuesday night. Come on! Wonderful news for my dear friend Jimmy and his amazing staff.”
Then, Colbert grabbed the Emmy that he won last weekend for outstanding talk show: “I’m so happy for them, plus, now that Jimmy’s not being canceled, I get to enjoy this again!” Then he quipped: “Once more, I am the only martyr in late nights. Wait, unless, CBS, you want to announce anything?”
Scott Kowalchyk/CBS
Last week, Colbert came to the defense of Kimmel, after ABC “indefinitely” suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The news was widely seen as an assault on the First Amendment and free speech rights, after Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr threatened action against Disney if it didn’t bench Kimmel. In an unprecedented threat, Carr went on a far-right podcast to proclaim that the FCC had “remedies we can look at. We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
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In his Sept. 18 monologue, Colbert noted that “Shortly after Carr made his statements about ABC, Kimmel gets yanked off the air. This 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, they were pissing themselves all day. On the bright side, that proves Disney is No. 1 in streaming.”
Colbert continued in that Sept. 18 monologue, “Carr was quick to reassure everyone posting, ‘While this may be an unprecedented decision, it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community values.’ Well, you know what my community values are, buster? Freedom of speech.”
During that episode “The Late Show” also parodied “Be Our Guest” from “Beauty and the Beast,” in which the character Lumiere sings for Disney employees to “shut your trap” and “the new rule at ABC don’t make fun of Donny T.”
Colbert also called the Kimmel decision “blatant censorship” and added “With an autocrat, you cannot give an inch… Jimmy, I stand with you and your staff 100%.”
Earlier this summer, Kimmel had thrown his support behind Colbert after CBS announced it would cancel “The Late Show” and end that talker’s run in May 2026. “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” even put up Emmy For Your Consideration billboards throwing Kimmel’s support behind Colbert. And it worked: Colbert won the outstanding talk series Emmy at this year’s ceremony.
When Colbert’s show was canceled, it was also seen as a means by Paramount Global to curry favor with the FCC as it needed the agency’s approval to be acquired by Skydance. Both Paramount and Skydance denied that speculation, but the timing of the news still left many curious about how Colbert’s cancellation was handled.
Kimmel later told Variety: “I think we were all shocked and disappointed that this kind of thing is happening in America, and also disappointed that we don’t see more people on the right stepping up and saying, ‘Hey, this is no good.’ Silencing comedians, commentators, whatever you want to call people… I have to say, if Joe Biden had used his muscle to get Sean Hannity kicked off the air, you may be surprised to learn that I would not support that. I would, in fact, support Sean Hannity in that situation, because I thought one of the founding principles of this country was free speech. But people don’t seem to care about protecting it unless you agree with them.”
From Variety US