While appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Colbert brought a clip that showed the exact moment he learned Kimmel’s show had been pulled — and it went down when he was filming his own show.
Stephen Colbert is opening up about how he found out the news that Jimmy Kimmel had been suspended following remarks he made on his show about the late Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer.
On Tuesday, the late-night hosts were guests on each other’s shows while the Jimmy Kimmel Live! is currently in its annual Brooklyn week; The Late Show with Stephen Colbert shoots in New York City. During his appearance on Kimmel’s show, Colbert, 61, recalled how he learned about Kimmel’s suspension, and even brought a video showing the exact moment he found out, which happened when he was filming his CBS show on Wednesday, September 17.
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Kimmel, 62, said that when he learned he had been pulled off the air, he texted his fellow late-hosts, including Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, and John Oliver. However, since Colbert was filming, he didn’t receive the news from Kimmel, himself, but his executive producer.
“I was just finishing my show,” Colbert recalled to Kimmel. “When you were texting, I didn’t get it from you. I was on stage. I had just finished the show. It was a Wednesday night, we had a pretty good show. I was about to say, ‘Hey, join us tomorrow for Pete Barbutti and Adrienne Barbeau or whoever my guest was the next night. Victor Buono.”
“And my executive producer comes over and he goes, ‘Hey, I just got this text from Carrie, I think I’m right to show it to you.’ And that’s how I found out, in front of the audience, with my mic up,” he added, before revealing he brought a video of the moment “and just set it up.”
In the clip, Colbert was at his desk when a producer came up to him. “Is there something we need to know? Did we land on the moon?” he jokingly asked the producer, who handed him a phone. As he seemingly read the news on the screen, Colbert sprawled out, and put his feet on his desk.
“OK, Jimmy Kimmel’s show has been pulled indefinitely by ABC,” Colbert announced to his audience, who reacted with apparent shock.
“Wow, wow. Wait. Hold on one second, I’ll be right back. I want to find out what this is about, I’ll be right back,” he added, before walking off stage as the clip ended.
Colbert told Kimmel that he had “no signal” at the time, so he was able to read the headline, but not any further details.
“So it didn’t tell me why, there was no rationale given, just that you had been yanked,” he said, to which Kimmel joked, “You assumed I did something stupid, right?”
“I generally assumed that it’s your fault,” Colbert quipped, before recalling what happened after he walked off stage.
“So I went backstage and I was like, ‘Oh, I can’t really tell why this happened, so we’ll talk about it tomorrow,'” he said. “And then the whole next night was just about you.”
Kimmel kindly noted that he appreciated Colbert’s support, before the latter took a moment to “embarrass” the former.
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“I said …’To know you well is to admire you deeply.’ And I’m so happy that your show is back on the air,” Colbert said. “Because we’ve known each other for 20 years, but we’ve only really gotten to know each other well the last few years. And I just gotta catch up on getting to know you because the more I get to know you, the more I admire you as a leader, I know you as a friend and here’s something I didn’t know, is that you’re funny.”
The show was suspended “indefinitely” on September 17 in the wake of the comments Kimmel made about the person accused of killing Charlie Kirk just two days prior. The right-wing activist was shot and killed in Orem, Utah, on September 10.
During his monologue on Monday, September 15, Kimmel said, “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.”
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He then shifted his attention to President Donald Trump’s reaction to Kirk’s assassination.
The decision to pull him off the air came after Kimmel’s comments drew the ire of FCC chairman Brendan Carr, and shortly after Nexstar Media, one of the largest owners of TV stations in the country, announced they would “preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show” on all their “owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network.”
“Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets,” they added.
On September 22, The Walt Disney Company confirmed Jimmy Kimmel Live! would return the next day, less than one week after Kimmel was pulled off the air.
The comedian made an emotional return on the Tuesday, September 23 episode of his show. Kimmel gave an impassioned speech about free speech, while clarifying any misunderstandings about the remarks regarding the assassination of Kirk that got him suspended in the first place.
