late-night show

Before Disney announced Monday that Jimmy Kimmel would be returning to ABC, the dialogue about the indefinite pause on his late-night show had continued to heat up.

Protesters packed the Hollywood block where Kimmel’s show is taped and sounded off both online and in public displays since the announcement of the suspension last week, and a horde of actors, writers, musicians and artists made their opinions on the matter clear.

Tom Hanks, Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Kerry Washington, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Pedro Pascal, Maya Rudolph and more than 400 other artists signed an open letter organized by the American Civil Liberties Union calling for the defense of free speech in the wake of Kimmel’s benching.

The letter, which was published Monday, says Kimmel’s suspension marks “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation” and said that the government’s “attempt to silence its critics” runs “counter to the values our nation was built upon, and our Constitution guarantees.”

“Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country,” the letter continues. “We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power — because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.”

The letter came together over the weekend, according to Jessica Weitz, director of artist and entertainment engagement at the ACLU. The list of names continued to grow after the letter was published, she said.

“Behind those signatures are teams of people who made their own calls to their networks to ask people to join, feeling strongly that this attack on free expression must be called out,” Weitz said in a statement to The Times. “When speech is being targeted with so much precision, it takes courage from every single person to speak out — and the creative community is meeting the urgency of this moment.”

Kimmel’s late-night program, which airs weeknights on ABC, has been dark since Wednesday, when the Disney-owned network announced it will be “preempted indefinitely.” The decision came after two major owners of ABC affiliates said they were dropping the show because of Kimmel’s remarks about the suspect in the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Late-night hosts were quick to respond to the news, with Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon each commenting on Kimmel’s situation in their Thursday episodes.

Over the weekend, HBO talk shows “Real Time With Bill Maher” and “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver,” weighed in on the controversy, beginning with Maher, who focused on Kimmel in his monologue Friday. Maher referred to “Politically Incorrect,” his late-night show that was canceled by ABC in 2002 after advertisers pulled out following a comment by the host about the Sept. 11 hijackers, saying they were “not cowardly.” Kimmel’s show replaced Maher’s slot.

“I got canceled before cancel even had a culture,” Maher said. “This s— ain’t new. It’s worse. We’ll get to that. But you know, ABC, they are steady. ABC stands for ‘Always be caving.’ So Jimmy, pal, I am with you. I support you. And on the bright side, you don’t have to pretend anymore that you like Disneyland.”

Maher, who is a self-described “old-school liberal” and has been critical of the Democratic Party in recent years, said he disagreed with Kimmel’s comments about Kirk’s suspected killer but believed he shouldn’t lose his job over them.

“You have the right to be wrong or to have any opinion you want, he said. “That’s what the 1st Amendment is all about.”

“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver zeroed in on Kimmel’s suspension and the Federal Communications Commission during his Sunday night episode. He blasted FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, directly addressed Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger and dove into the implications of the suspension in a nearly 30-minute-long segment.

“Kimmel is by no means the first casualty in Trump’s attacks on free speech. He’s just the latest canary in the coal mine — a mine that, at this point, now seems more dead canary than coal,” Oliver said. “This Kimmel situation does feel like a turning point, and not because comedians are important, but because we are not. If the government can force a network to pull a late-night show off the air and do so in plain view, it can do a f— of a lot worse.”

In addressing Disney head Iger, Oliver urged him to understand that “giving the bully your lunch money doesn’t make him go away. It just makes him come back hungrier each time.”

Oliver said his show is “lucky” to be in a different situation than Kimmel’s because neither HBO or its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, owns broadcast networks, meaning they are “much less susceptible to pressure from the FCC.” He then cut to a news segment about how Paramount Skydance, the parent company of CBS, is preparing a bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, which Oliver followed up with repeated expletives.

The women who host ABC’s “The View,” which is known for not shying away from hot-button topics, had been silent on the issue last week, but addressed Kimmel’s suspension Monday.

“Did y’all really think we weren’t going to talk about Jimmy Kimmel?” host Whoopi Goldberg said. “I mean, have you watched the show over the last 29 seasons? No one silences us.”

FCC head Carr has indicated that “The View” might be the next subject of a future investigation.

The panel, including Ana Navarro and Alyssa Farah Griffin, also weighed in before Goldberg said, “We fight for everybody’s right to have freedom of speech because it means my speech is free, it means your speech is free.”

President Trump is celebrating the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” on CBS — and calling for even more late-night hosts to be axed.

“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,” Trump wrote Friday morning on Truth Social. “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”

He added that Greg Gutfeld, who has a late-night show and co-hosts “The Five” on Fox News, “is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show,” referring to Jimmy Fallon.

Although “Late Night” is the top-rated late-night broadcast show, “Gutfeld!” draws a bigger audience.

Colbert, 61, has hosted the show for a decade and shared the news of its cancellation Thursday night, noting that he was made aware of the decision only the night before. “The Late Show” will end in May.

“It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS,” Colbert said. “I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”

CBS said the decision was “purely financial.” The cancellation comes after Colbert criticized the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, for settling a lawsuit filed by Trump last year over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. Colbert called the $16-million settlement a “big fat bribe” Monday night, noting that Paramount is awaiting federal approval for its $8-billion merger with Skydance Media.

Both branches of the Writers Guild called on New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James to investigate Paramount.

“Cancelations are part of the business, but a corporation terminating a show in bad faith due to explicit or implicit political pressure is dangerous and unacceptable in a democratic society,” read a statement released Friday by the union.

Fellow late-night hosts have since criticized the show’s cancellation.

“Love you Stephen. F— you and all your Sheldons CBS,” Kimmel wrote in an Instagram story, referencing the network hits “The Big Bang Theory” and “Young Sheldon.”

“I’m just as shocked as everyone. Stephen is one of the sharpest, funniest hosts to ever do it. I really thought I’d ride this out with him for years to come,” Jimmy Fallon posted in an Instagram story. “I’m sad that my family and friends will need a new show to watch every night at 11:30. But honestly, he’s really been a gentleman and a true friend over the years — going back to The Colbert Report, and I’m sure whatever he does next will be just as brilliant.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who called for an investigation into the Paramount settlement this month, suggested that the move was politically motivated.

“CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump — a deal that looks like bribery,” she wrote Thursday night on X. “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”

“If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better,” said Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who was a guest on the show Thursday night.

Trump had called for Colbert’s termination in September.

“I briefly watched an interview of Stephen Colbert on highly government subsidized PBS, and found it fascinating for only one reason — Why would they be wasting time and the public’s money on this complete and total loser?” he wrote on Truth Social. “He is not funny, which he gets paid far too much to be, he is not wise, he is VERY BORING, and his show is dying from a complete lack of viewers.

“CBS should terminate his contract and pick almost anyone, right off the street, who would do better, and for FAR LESS MONEY,” he continued. “Or I could recommend someone, much more talented, and smarter, who would do it for FREE! The good news for Stephen is that the two DOPES on NBC & ABC are not much better than him!”

In a Variety interview published Wednesday, Kimmel shared his concerns about the Trump administration targeting him and his competitors.

“Well, you’d have to be naive not to worry a little bit. But that can’t change what you’re doing,” the ABC late-night host told the outlet. “And maybe it is naive, but I have the hope that if and when the day comes that he does start coming after comedians, that even my colleagues on the right will support my right to say what I like. Now, I could be kidding myself, and hopefully we’ll never find out. But if we do, I would hope that the outrage is significant.”

Turns out Kat Timpf is now one of the people she used to want to throw up on.

Timpf’s transformation was revealed Monday in her return to Fox News’ late-night show “Gutfeld,” where she had a regular co-host seat before going out on maternity leave in February.

That leave included a breast cancer diagnosis that came just 15 hours before she gave birth. Soon after delivery, she had a double mastectomy.

“For you keeping score, Kat had sex, which in getting pregnant cured her cancer, meaning sex cures cancer,” host Greg Gutfeld explained. That said, the show did welcome back its missing libertarian with semi-seriousness.

“We’re super happy Kat’s returned. We missed her dearly. We know the future will still be hard for her. There will be other hurdles, I’m sure, but we have faith in her, as much as I hope she has faith in us, to be here when things get rough or when things get better,” Gutfeld said, “but she still complains. So, please welcome Kat back and congratulate her for kicking out a baby and kicking cancer.”

Timpf quickly laid it all out there about what she’d done on her three-month spring break.

“So, I am boob-free,” said the co-host, who is married since 2021 to former Army Ranger Cameron Friscia. “I am cancer-free as well. So, I’m very, yeah, I’m very excited about it.

“It was, it was a hard thing to go through, and it still is, as you know, you mentioned, I still have reconstruction surgeries ahead. I still have things to go through, tough thing to go through, easy decision to make because, like, I didn’t want to risk my life for some f— 32 As.”

“Been there,” co-host Tyrus joked.

Seriously, Timpf says she loves being a mom, even with the personal drama that accompanied it.

“The whole thing, the way that it happened, it really was truly insane,” she said. “I really had a day between the cancer diagnosis and the labor, and we don’t know for sure what happened. I could have gotten cancer because I was pregnant, and even if I did, he’s still so worth it, because I love him so much. And I know that’s so cheesy, and I know that’s so gross, and I used to hear people say that, and like how I can’t imagine my life without him.

“And I used to want to throw up on them, but now I’m one of those people.”

Tyrus, left, Kat Timpf, Greg Gutfeld, Kennedy and comedian Dave Angelo on Fox News’ late-night show “Gutfeld!”

(Fox News)

“Yeah, you know what?” Gutfeld said. “It’s called a transformational experience where you couldn’t even go back in time and explain to yourself what it’s like.” (He had his own transformational experience slightly before Timpf did: The 60-year-old and wife Elena Moussa welcomed baby girl Mira in December.)

Fill-in host Kennedy, a mother of two, said she was just trying not to cry now that Timpf was back and a mom and healthy, and finally Tyrus got to welcome back his “partner in crime,” saying, “It’s been f— horrible. Thank God you’re back.” He also lobbied for Kennedy to get a permanent chair on “Gutfeld!”

Then he announced he had a surprise for the kiddo he had nicknamed “Big Ben,” thanks to a sonogram picture he saw where the baby was the same length as a wristwatch.

“I have a gift for Big Ben, because every young man starting out in the world needs to have — now, he can’t have it right now, you got to wait, but — he needs to have his own Godzilla,” the comic and former pro wrestler said. “So, this is for Big Ben’s first — this is Big Ben’s first action figure. Not a doll.”

“This ain’t girl stuff. This is an action figure for Big Ben.”

Gutfeld, meanwhile, had already given the gift of advice to Baby Timpf-Friscia. During his monologue, he noted that the little guy “came into the world already a hero, for he saved his mommy’s life.”

“If I were him, I would hold that over her head every chance I get,” Gutfeld said. He specifically suggested the child use it as leverage to get his hands on the car keys before he is legally old enough to drive and possibly to procure some Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

And, because the show has running jokes about the hosts of “The View,” he couldn’t help but compliment Timpf for tackling her cancer, noting she had “tackled it head-on, like Joy Behar shoving aside security at a KFC grand opening.”