Late-night legend David Letterman on Thursday called ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show “ridiculous,” saying, “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.”
“I feel bad about this because we all see where this is going, correct?” Letterman told Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic Festival in New York City.
“It’s managed media,” said Letterman, who hosted shows on CBS and NBC for more than three decades.
“And it’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous,” he said.
ABC, which is a subsidiary of Disney, on Wednesday night said it was pulling the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show off the air “indefinitely” after Kimmel linked the alleged killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk to the MAGA movement of President Donald Trump. Kimmel has not been fired.
Letterman on Thursday compared ABC’s move to the decision by CBS in July to cancel its “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” effective next May.
A week after CBS cancelled the Colbert show — which has mocked Trump — the Federal Communications Commission approved an $8 billion merger between the network’s owner, Paramount, and Skydance Media.
“They took care of Colbert,” Letterman said Thursday.
“That was rude, that was inexcusable, the man deserves a great deal of credit, he’s in the Hall of Fame nine times, and to be manipulated like that, because the Ellison family [which owned Skydance] didn’t want to trouble Donald Trump with this move, so they got rid of him,” Letterman said.
“Not only got rid of him, got rid of the whole franchise.”
Letterman said he’s been in touch with Kimmel since the suspension was announced.
“He was nice enough to text me this morning,” Letterman said. “And he’s sitting up in bed taking nourishment. He’s going to be fine.”
Another late-night host, Jon Stewart, on Thursday planned to host an episode of “The Daily Show.”
Stewart, as a rule, only hosts the Comedy Central show on Mondays. He is set to interview Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize winner and the author of the book “How to Stand Up to a Dictator,” the Associated Press reported.
Trump on Wednesday night crowed about Kimmel’s suspension and mentioned Colbert.
“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.”
He suggested that NBC follow ABC’s example and cancel its own evening shows, “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
Trump suggested to reporters on Thursday that the FCC might revoke the licenses of broadcast television networks that are “against” him.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the 2024 presidential election to Trump, in a tweet on Thursday, said, “What we are witnessing is an outright abuse of power.”
“This administration is attacking critics and using fear as a weapon to silence anyone who would speak out,” she wrote.
“Media corporations — from television networks to newspapers — are capitulating to these threats,” Harris wrote. “We cannot dare to be silent or complacent in the face of this frontal assault on free speech.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.
