By Chris Murphy

Copyright vanityfair

Colbert knows a thing or two about being silenced by a network. Earlier this summer, Paramount abruptly announced that it was cancelling his Emmy-winning CBS late-night show, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, after Colbert’s contract expires in May. The decision came as Paramount, CBS’s parent company, was waiting for government approval for an $8 billion merger with media conglomerate SkyDance. At the time, Kimmel and the other late-night hosts rallied around Colbert, appearing together on his show and calling out CBS and Paramount for potentially kowtowing to President Donald Trump, who had made his ire for Colbert and his comedy well-known.
Now it was time for Colbert to return the favor. “Tonight, we are all Jimmy Kimmel,” said Colbert to open his monologue. “Yesterday, after threats from the FCC chair, ABC yanked Kimmel off the air indefinitely. That is blatant censorship,” said Colbert. He then reminded the audience about Trump’s decision in his first week of his presidency to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. “Sure, seems harmless, but with an autocrat you cannot give an inch,” said Colbert, to loud cheers from the studio audience. “And if ABC thinks this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive. And clearly they never read the children’s book, If You Give A Mouse a Kimmel.”
Colbert than addressed Kimmel directly, saying he stands with the comedian and his staff amid the suspension, before joking that the brouhaha surrounding Kimmel has overshadowed The Late Show’s recent Emmy win for outstanding talk series. “You couldn’t let me enjoy this for like one week? Come on,” said Colbert, who was holding his Emmy.
On The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart also showed his support for Kimmel, albeit in a more tongue-in-cheek way. “It’s your all-new government-approved Daily Show with your patriotic host Jon Stewart,” a voiceover announced before panning to a nervous Stewart. “We have another fun, hilarious administration-compliant show,” said the seemingly spooked Stewart. Stewart then admonished the crowd for laughing and threatening to blow his cover while he praised Trump through visibly clenched teeth.
“Now, some naysayers may argue that this administration’s speech concerns are merely a cynical ploy, a thin gruel of a ruse, a smokescreen to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of power and unitary intimidation; principle-less and coldly antithetical to any experiment in a constitutional republic governance,” said Stewart. “Some people would say that. Not me, though. I think it’s great.”
Over on The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon kept his remarks about the other late-night Jimmy rather brief. “Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC after receiving pressure from the FCC, leaving everyone thinking WTF?” said Fallon at the top of this monologue. “This morning I woke up to 100 texts from my dad being like, ‘I’m sorry they canceled your show,’” Fallon quipped. He then took on a more serious tone and expressed his genuine confusion with the situation and his admiration for his other Jimmy. “But, to be honest with you all, I don’t know what’s going on, and no one does. But I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he’s a decent, funny, and loving guy, and I hope he comes back.”
Fallon’s NBC counterpart, Seth Meyers, devoted an entire Late Night segment titled “A Closer Look” to Kimmel and Trump’s crackdown on free speech. “I just want to say, before we get started here, that I’ve always admired and respected Mr. Trump,” said Meyers, to laughter from the audience. “I’ve always believed he was—no, no, no—a visionary, an innovator, a great president, an even better golfer. And if you’ve ever seen me say anything negative about him, that’s just AI.”
He eventually turned his attention directly to Kimmel. “And, may I just say, 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,” said Meyers. “I wake up every day, I count my blessings that I live in a country that at least purports to value freedom of speech, and we’re going to keep doing our show the way we’ve always done it with enthusiasm and integrity.”