No one imagined the face-off between US President Donald Trump and talk show hosts would get to a point of shows being taken off air mid-season. Ever since television network ABC decided to “indefinitely” remove Jimmy Kimmel Live from television, his fans and peers from the industry have expressed their disapproval of the administration and ABC. Hosts Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers are the latest to weigh in on the situation.
Fallon started his opening monologue while acknowledging the events. “Well, the big story is that Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC after pressure from the FCC, leaving everyone thinking WTF. What’s going on? This morning I woke up with 100 text messages from my dad saying, ‘Sorry they cancelled your show.’ That’s not me. But in all honesty I don’t know what’s going on. I do know Jimmy Kimmel; he is a decent, funny and loving guy, and I hope he comes back. A lot of people are worried that we will be censored for saying things, but I will be covering the president’s trip to the UK just like I normally would,” he said.
Colbert, who has already lost his show starting next season, went all guns blazing on the FCC chair, Brendan Carr, for orchestrating the whole suspension. “Tonight we are all Jimmy Kimmel. This is blatant censorship, and it always starts small. In week 1 of his presidency, he wanted to call it the Gulf of America, and everyone was fine with it. But with an autocrat you cannot give an inch, and if ABC thinks that this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive. I stand with Kimmel and his staff a hundred percent,” said Colbert.
The host continued his rant about the FCC chair, Brendan Carr, and said, “Brendan Carr went even further, sending a direct message to broadcasters about what their next move should be and throwing in a little implied threat. Disney owns ABC, and they need the Trump administration’s green light for their upcoming deal with ESPN. Since Steve Allen, these shows have been talking about the presidents, and that happens to be you (Trump). This was all part of a plan, and it wasn’t because of his comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.”
Seth too talked about the incident and praised the president in order to ensure that he doesn’t get cancelled along with his buddies. He said, “I have always admired him. I think he is a visionary, an innovator, a great president and an even better golfer. If you see some clips of me making fun of him, that is just AI.” Even though Seth approached the situation with some fun, he still proceeded to poke fun at Trump’s entire trip to the US, proving that he too will continue to voice his criticism of the president.
Fans and supporters are specifically feeling wronged by the hands of Carr, who basically threatened the broadcasters on The Benny Show while saying, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
