Bill Maher is the latest late night star to throw his support behind Jimmy Kimmel after his suspension following his comments about Charlie Kirk’s death.
Broadcaster ABC announced Jimmy Kimmel Live! had been pulled ‘indefinitely’ following comments made by the presenter about the assassination of right-wing influencer Kirk.
On Monday’s episode of the show – which Kimmel has hosted since 2003 – he said the following about Kirk’s alleged killer: ‘We had some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and with everything they can to score political points from it.’
Since then, the likes of Jon Stewart, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon and former host David Letterman have all shared words of support for Kimmel.
On Friday’s episode of Real Time, Maher described Kimmel as a ‘friend’ and ‘compatriot’ who got ‘canned by ABC’ in a moment he joked brought things full circle.
‘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,’ he recalled of his 9/11 comments that cost him his job.
He quipped: ‘ABC, they are steady. ABC stands for Always Be Caving.’
Maher noted he doesn’t think Kimmel’s comments were ‘exactly right’ and while they ‘don’t agree’ on what his fellow late night star said, he still defended him and insisted he ‘shouldn’t lose his job’.
‘Jimmy, let me just say, you did a great, funny show for two decades,’ he said. ‘You should be proud of that. If this firing goes for you the way it did for me, you’ll get 23 years on a better network.’
Meanwhile, former Tonight Show host Jay Leno has also backed Kimmel as he spoke to reporters at Chris Wallace’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony.
‘I’m on Jimmy Kimmel’s side on that one,’ he said. ‘I’m a huge proponent of free speech. Please. I’m on Jimmy Kimmel’s side.’
In his opening monologue earlier this week, Fallon joked he had woken up to messages from his dad saying, ‘Sorry they cancelled your show’.
He added: ‘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.’
Meanwhile, fellow late-night host Seth Meyers managed to find the humour in his own fears of cancellation, kicking off his show by saying: ‘[Trump’s] administration is pursuing a crackdown on free speech.
‘Completely unrelated, I just want to say before we get started here that I’ve always admired and respected Mr Trump.’
To laughter from the audience, Meyers continued: ‘I’ve always believed he was – no, no, no – a visionary, an innovator, a great president, an even better golfer. And if you’ve ever seen me say anything negative about him, that’s just AI.’
On Jon Stewart’s show, he mockingly referred to himself as a ‘patriotically obedient host’, having stepped in to present ‘the all-new, government-approved Daily Show’ on a weekday he doesn’t normally do so.
Stephen Colbert also addressed the situation in his own show monologue, discussing ABC executives’ decision to suspend Kimmel after Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr spoke of action against the network.
‘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,’ he said.
Per CNBC, Colbert said Kimmel’s suspension was ‘blatant censorship’ and added ‘With an autocrat, you cannot give an inch’ before declaring he stood by ‘Jimmy and his staff 100%’.
Earlier in the day, Letterman had spoken to Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic Festival in New York and called the suspension a ‘misery’ and part of a ‘world of someone who’s an authoritarian, maybe a dictatorship’, reports the Daily Mail.
‘It’s ridiculous. You 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,’ he said on Thursday.
Giving an update on Kimmel, Letterman – who previously hosted Late Night – said he was ‘sitting up in bed taking nourishment. He’s going to be fine’.
Letterman observed that his show lived through six Presidents, and despite them ripping into those governments ‘mercilessly’ he was never pulled from air.
‘Beating up on these people, rightly or wrongly, accurately or perhaps inaccurately, in the name of comedy, not once were we squeezed by anyone from any governmental agency, let alone the dreaded FCC,’ he said, in reference to the independent agency of the US government that regulates the media.
Conservative activist Kirk was fatally shot last week while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem.
The 31-year-old had been credited with energising the Republican youth movement and helping Donald Trump win the 2024 election, with the accused shooter Tyler Robinson, 22, making his first court appearance this week.
According to Trump, Kimmel was actually suspended because he is ‘not a talented individual.’
He said in Thursday afternoon’s press conference with Prime Minister Keir Starmer: ‘Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else and he said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.’
He continued: ‘And Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person and he had bad ratings and they should have fired him a long time ago, so you can call that free speech or not, he was fired for lack of talent.’
Taking to social media, Trump also said: ‘Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.
‘That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC.’
Contrary to Trump’s claim, the news of the show being pulled off the air came after Nexstar Media, one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the United States, said it would not broadcast the show after Kimmel’s comments about Kirk.
Meanwhile, Hollywood stars and famous faces have rushed to support Kimmel.
Barack Obama called the move ‘dangerous’, as he wrote on X: ‘After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.’
The former President added: ‘This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.’
Writing on X, Ben Stiller reposted the news of ABC taking Kimmel off the air and said: ‘This isn’t right.’
Jamie Lee Curtis, 66, also reposted a photo of Kimmel to her Instagram Story with a quote attributed to the comedian, saying: ‘I don’t think anybody should be canceled. I really don’t.’
Following his suspension, SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America have released statements condemning Kimmel’s suspension.
‘The decision to suspend airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone’s freedoms,’ they said.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
