All of late night rallies around ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’

by Therese Odell, posted in watch this

My money is on the crab.

@deweyandbanks

Banks vs crab 🦀 dw the crab and banks made it out alive #dog #puppy #dogsoftiktok #fyp

♬ original sound – DeweyandBanks

Here’s A BUNCH OF TV News

As expected, late-night responded to Disney’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the head of the FCC threatened them:

Stephen Colbert declared the move to be “blatant censorship” and threatened: “With an autocrat, you cannot give an inch. If ABC thinks that this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive. And clearly they’ve never read the children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Kimmel.”

Colbert also brought back his alter ego, Stephen Colbert, for “The Word.”

Jon Stewart hosted Thursday’s “all-new, government-approved” The Daily Show. “We have another fun, hilarious, administration-compliant show,” he began. “Coming to you tonight from the real sh*thole, the crime-ridden cesspool that is New York City. It is a tremendous disaster like no one’s ever seen before. Someone’s National Guard should invade this place, am I right?

“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, principledness and coldly antithetical to any experiment in a constitutional republic, governance. Some people would say that. Not me though, I think it’s great.” :

Seth Meyers honored his friend Jimmy Kimmel in his Closer Look: “It is a privilege and an honor to call Jimmy Kimmel my friend, in the same way that it’s a privilege and honor to do this show every night. I wake up every day and I count my blessings that I live in a country that at least purports to value freedom of speech.” He also promised to continue doing his show with enthusiasm and integrity only to be punctuated with a fart sound.

And even milquetoast Jimmy Fallon managed to say something in support of Jimmy Kimmel (sorta), which he should because his name is already in President Fascist’s mouth. “To be honest with you all, I don’t know what’s going on — no one does. But I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he is a decent, funny, and loving guy. And I hope he comes back.” He then goes on to claim he won’t be censored, only to have the punchlines of his jokes have a voice-over laid on top of them.

The only member of “Strike Force Five” that hasn’t made a statement is Jon Oliver, but I think we can assume

Former late-night titans, David Letterman and Jay Leno also weighed in.

David Letterman:

“You know, I just, I feel bad about this because we all see where this is going, correct? It’s managed media. And it’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous,” Letterman said as he was introduced by Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, with whom he briefly discussed the Kimmel news from the stage. “And 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.

“This guy [at] the FCC said, ‘We can do things the easy way. We can do things the hard way’. Who is hiring these goons? Mario Puzo?”

View on Threads

Jay Leno:

“I’m on Jimmy Kimmel’s side on that one,” Leno told reporters. “I’m a huge proponent of free speech. Please. I’m on Jimmy Kimmel’s side.”

He added, “You don’t get canceled saying popular things. Usually, it’s the truth that winds up getting canceled, so we’ll see what happens.”

Folks are protesting and canceling their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions.

Behind the scenes, Kimmel and Disney have been in talks, though they have not reached an agreement on how or if he will return. And there are many Disney executives who feel Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment head, Dana Walden, bent too quickly to MAGA bitching, calling it a “betrayal.”

But The Daily Mail is reporting that Kimmel is pissed and looking for a way out of his contract. Take that with a ton of salt as The Daily Mail isn’t the most reliable source.

Some staffers are pessimistic that they will come back. 

“Even if Jimmy was willing to publicly apologize and donate money to whatever ghoulish conservative group that is demanding it … MAGA people will never be happy. It will never be enough. And Disney will look at the situation and decide it’s cheaper to buy out the rest of his contract and replace the show with reruns of Modern Family and Judge Judy.”

And former Disney head, Michael Eisner, is not holding back:

Kimmel leaving ABC would be a big loss for the network — he’s not just the host of their late-night show, he’s in some ways the face of the entertainment side of the network. He’s hosting Who Wants to be a Millionaire, he has hosted both the Emmys and the Oscars on ABC, and he routinely hosts network events, like the Upfronts. In the short run, the loss of one celebrity is probably worth it for the media conglomerates’ deals, but I think Jimmy Kimmel becoming a free speech martyr will hurt them in the long run. I won’t be surprised if this ends with him getting out of his contract, but it will be a loss for ABC.

Meanwhile, President Catheter is now suggesting that the FCC pull the licenses of broadcasters who say anything negative about him.

“They give me only bad press,” he said. “They’re getting a license. I think maybe their license should be taken away. It will be up to Brendan Carr. I think Brendan Carr is outstanding. He’s a patriot. He loves our country, and he’s a tough guy. So we’ll see.”

It should be noted that President Halfwit doesn’t understand what the fuck he’s talking about. ABC doesn’t have a license; the affiliates do. Could they pull hundreds of affiliates’ licenses? Sure, they could, but it would only really hurt the corporations that own those affiliates and their viewers, many of whom are red-state voters. Of course, if we’ve learned anything in the past 8 months, it’s that this administration doesn’t give a shit about their voters, so who knows.

And Brendan Carr, he’s setting his sights on The View next:

“The FCC does have a rule, called the equal opportunity rule, which means … in the runup to an election if you have one partisan election official on, you have to give equal time, equal opportunity to the opposing partisan politician,” Carr said on the podcast. “But there’s an exception to that rule called the ‘bona fide news exception,’ which means if you are a bonafide news program, you don’t have to abide by the equal opportunity rule. And over the years the FCC has developed a body of case law that has suggested that mostly late-night shows, not SNL, are bonafide news programs. And so potentially I would assume you could make the argument that The View is a bona fide news program. But I am not so sure about that, and I think it is worthwhile to have the FCC look into whether The View and some of these other programs that you have still qualify as bonafide news programs.”

Here’s the catch that Carr hasn’t maybe considered: if talk shows are stripped of their “bonafide news program” status, radio shows — including conservative radio shows — could also be stripped of that designation. So proceed carefully, Carr.

Speaking of The View, they are on day two of NOT TALKING ABOUT IT. Is it cowardly? Yes, absolutely. Is not speaking out on it while everything is going nuclear crucial to keeping them on the air in this moment? Yes, absolutely, as well.

HUH.

The rest of the world gets it:

View on Threads

@senzerules

#fyp #satire #comedy #pov #skit

♬ Classic classical gymnopedie solo piano(1034554) – Lyrebirds music

Might Netflix make a bid for Warner Bros.? Sounds like Paramount’s David Ellison’s determination to own everything is freaking out some in Hollywood. Stay tuned.

Happy 50th anniversary to one of the greatest sitcoms to ever do it!

Doctor Who is “going nowhere,” according to the chief content officer at the BBC, but there’s no word on when a new season will happen.

Wait, old episodes of All My Children are now streaming internationally, but not here? WHY NOT HERE? P.S.: Bring back All My Children and One Life to Live, dammit.

The time Erika Slezak stood up for a young Nancy Lee Grahn.

Love is dead.

In Development

  • What Happens at Night, a ghost story starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence and directed by Martin Scorsese, is in the works at Apple.
  • 50 Cent’s production company is adapting the film Paid in Full into a series.
  • The Lux book series is being adapted into a series at Amazon MGM.

Casting News

Mark Your Calendar

  • Outlander returns on Starz in early 2026.
  • House of David returns on Wonder Project on Prime Video on October 5.
  • 106 & Sports debuts on BET on October 15.
  • Romantics Anonymous will premiere on Netflix on October 16.

R.I.P.

Joel Moss, Seven-time Grammy-winning producer, engineer, and mixer who worked on many films, including Pretty in Pink, Little Shop of Horrors, and Chicago

Brett James, Grammy-winning songwriter known for “Jesus, Take the Wheel”

WATCH THIS

FRIDAY

Swiped: The story of Whitney Wolfe, the woman who invented Bumble and broke into the tech industry’s boys’ club. Premiere. Hulu

Caleb Hearon: Model Comedian: Caleb Hearon’s first stand-up special filmed in Chicago.  8 p.m., HBO & HBO Max

The Couple Next Door: Season two premiere. Starz

Haunted Hotel: A single mom moves into a hotel inherited from her brother, only to discover it’s filled with ghosts. From the co-executive producer of The Goldbergs and Krapopolis. Series premiere. Netflix

Chief of War: Season finale. Apple TV+

SATURDAY

Farm Aid 40: Five hours of performances from Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp, among many others. 6 p.m., CNN

28 Years Later: Streaming premiere. Netflix

SUNDAY

Tulsa King: Season three premiere. Paramount+

99 to Beat: 100 contestants compete against each other in seemingly easy and hilarious competitions for a cash prize. Kinda like Squid Game without all the death. Series premiere. 7 p.m., Fox

A Grammy Salute to Earth, Wind & Fire Live: The 21st of September: I mean, when else would you air this? 7 p.m., CBS

FRI. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC High Potential
(repeat)		 20/20
CBS Big Brother
(new)		 CBS Fall First Look
(new)		 Ghosts
(repeat)		 Blue Bloods
(repeat)
CW MLB Baseball
(live)
FOX College Football
(live)		 Local
NBC America’s Got Talent
(repeat)		 Dateline

—

SAT. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30
ABC College Football
(live)		 News/Local
CBS College Football
(live)		 News/Local
FOX College Football
(live)
NBC College Football
(live)		 News/
Local		 Saturday Night Live
(repeat)

—

SUN. 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC America’s Funniest Home Videos
(repeat)		 The Happiest Story on Earth: 70 Years of Disneyland
(new)		 High Potential
(repeat)
CBS 60 Minutes A Grammy Salute To Earth, Wind & Fire Live: The 21st Night of September
(new)		 Big Brother
(new)
The CW Trivial Pursuit
(new)		 Pretty Woman Local/News
FOX NFL Football
(live)		 The OT
(live)		 99 to Beat
(repeat)		 The 2025 Fox Fall Preview
(new)		 Krap-opolis
(new)		 Local/News
NBC Sunday Night Football
(live)

One thought on “All of late night rallies around ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’”

  1. Loved this episode of The Daily Show. His interview with his guest Maria Ressa should be required listening for everyone!

    Reply

Leave a Reply to FranciCancel reply