Seth Meyers reacted to ABC’s decision to indefinitely suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live! during the latest episode of his late-night talk series, where he stressed the importance of free speech and also showed support for Jimmy Kimmel.
Appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers on Thursday night, the first episode taped after news of the suspension broke, Meyers kicked off his “Closer Look” segment by joking that he’s “always admired and respected Mr. Trump.”
“If you’ve ever seen me say anything negative about him, that’s just AI,” he continued. “I’m told there’s some clips of me on the internet making jokes about it from a few years back. Those are obviously deep fakes.”
Later in the episode, a series of clips of President Donald Trump vowing to maintain free speech in the United States were shown. When discussing the topic, Meyers shouted out Kimmel.
“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,” he said. “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, and we’re gonna keep doing our show the way we’ve always done it with enthusiasm and integrity.”
The Late Night host added, “This is a pivotal, this is a big moment in our democracy, and we must all stand up for the principles of free expression. There is a reason free speech is in the very first amendment. It stands above all others.”
Meyers, like Kimmel, has not shied away from criticizing President Donald Trump and his administration over the years. As Trump celebrated Kimmel’s suspension on Truth Social, he referenced the end of Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show, writing, “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!!!”
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was “pre-empted indefinitely” by ABC on Wednesday shortly after Nexstar released a statement noting they would not air the planned episode and would pre-empt the long-running talk show for the foreseeable future.
The backlash stemmed from Kimmel’s regards about the alleged shooter of Charlie Kirk. His comments were as follows: “We hit 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 doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
Following Kimmel’s remarks, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr went on a podcast on Wednesday where he publicly condemned Kimmel’s comments and urged affiliates should “push back” on ABC and say, “Listen, we’re not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we’re running the possibility of license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion.”
Following the news of the suspension, a source told The Hollywood Reporter Kimmel was prepared to address the backlash on Wednesday night’s show. He planned to explain what he said and demonstrate how it was taken out of context. The source added that Kimmel was not planning on apologizing. He felt that what he said did not need an apology.
A plethora of Hollywood figures have since reacted to ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live!, including late-night legend 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,” the former host of NBC’s Late Night and CBS’ The Late Show said. “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.”