Stephen Colbert tore into both ABC and his own network CBS for their “weak” decisions to give in to President Donald Trump and his administration’s demands.
The comments came as the 61-year-old trashed ABC for its sudden decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air.
“Tonight we are all Jimmy Kimmel,” the late-night host said in his Thursday taping, according to a source in the audience.
It was Colbert’s first monologue since ABC announced it would preempt Kimmel’s show “indefinitely” after a Trump-appointed FCC chairman threatened to revoke their broadcasting license.
“Yesterday after threats from Trump’s FCC chair, ABC yanked Kimmel off the air indefinitely. That is blatant censorship,” Colbert said, adding about Trump, “With an autocrat, you cannot give an inch.”
In a Q&A with the audience before taping, Colbert reportedly compared ABC negatively to his own company, CBS, which canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in July.
“I’ll say this for my network: they wouldn’t have done this,” Colbert said. “Regardless of what you think, that has already been done and how that looks, this is weak.”
In an early clip from his monologue, Colbert highlighted FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s post on X Wednesday night, which praised ABC’s decision to comply to his demands, which came after Kimmel made jokes about the assassination of Charlie Kirk the Trump and MAGA disagreed with.
“It is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community value,” Carr wrote.
“Well you know what my community values are, Buster? Freedom of speech!” Colbert said to loud cheers from his live audience.
The cancellation of Colbert’s show itself set off major concerns in July over the state of freedom of speech in the second Trump administration.
The announcement of Colbert’s cancellation came mere days after he accused his parent company Paramount of settling a flimsy lawsuit with Trump solely to help their merger with Skydance Media go through.
The WGA wrote in a statement the day after Colbert announced his show was ending, “The Writers Guild of America has significant concerns that The Late Show’s cancellation is a bribe, sacrificing free speech to curry favor with the Trump Administration."
The cold open to Colbert’s show set its sights on Disney, ABC’s parent company, for its complicity in the situation.
The clip showed a mock-PSA from Disney where the talking candle Lumière from Beauty and the Beast tells ABC employees to “shut your trap” about Trump, to the tune of “Be Our Guest.”
“Mum’s the word, have you heard? Kissing ass is what’s preferred!” Lumière sings.
The song concluded, “So don’t you make a scene or mention Jeff Epstein, or your show will be scrapped. Shut your trap!"
