There are obviously comparisons to be made between what’s happening with Jimmy Kimmel and what happened to Stephen Colbert at CBS. I think the differences in the situation are fascinating and horrifying, and it’s worth talking about it. CBS didn’t just say “Colbert needs to go,” they canceled The Late Show entirely, justifying their decision as partly about money. As in, these late-night shows have lost the bulk of their audiences across the board, and it didn’t make sense to invest so heavily in The Late Show, especially because Colbert was calling out authoritarians and fascists every night, all while CBS’s corporate owner was negotiating a merger. With Kimmel, he’s been indefinitely suspended because of specific comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin and Trumpworld’s attempts to blame left-wing groups for Kirk’s death. ABC/Disney can’t suddenly say “oh, this was really a business decision.” All of which to say, I hope Kimmel really goes to the mattresses on this. I hope he and everyone at JKL lawyers up AND gets their unions involved. I do not believe that Kimmel is angry enough to rage-quit his job, but that’s what “sources” are telling the Daily Mail.

Jimmy Kimmel has gone nuclear after ABC pulled his show following his vile comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Insiders told the Daily Mail the late-night host is ‘absolutely f***ing livid’ they canceled Jimmy Kimmel Live! just hours before he was due to go on air.

On Wednesday FCC Chair Brendan Carr urged broadcasters to stop airing his show, hinting he would open an investigation into the vicious comments. Nexstar Media Group, which owners numerous local ABC affiliates, then came out and branded Kimmel’s comments ‘offensive and insensitive’. By Wednesday night Disney-owned ABC announced Jimmy Kimmel Live! was ‘pre-empted indefinitely’, without elaborating further.

A source told the Daily Mail: ‘Jimmy is p***ed over the decision to suspend him and the show and he isn’t going to take this lightly, as he is actively looking for ways to get out of his contract. This is the last straw and Jimmy is now looking to forever break his relationship with ABC forever. Stephen Colbert is already looking to get Jimmy on his show as a guest in the next couple days or within the week. Now they both are in the same predicament with being against the Trump administration, and they are now looking to do something together to fight for what they believe in. They both don’t want Trump to win in any way or fashion at all, and this has lit an extreme fire under Jimmy’s ass to continue to tell it like it is and be real to himself.’

A producer on the show gave a glimpse into how the news was being met by Kimmel and the rest of the crew. They said: ‘Well now I don’t have anything to do, we’re shut down indefinitely. We’re all here and were basically wandering around like aimless cows. Jimmy is going to meet with the network now, and hopefully figure this out, but he is livid. Absolutely f***ing livid. This is clearly the government overreaching. There’s no such thing as free speech in America, if the government can lean on companies to stop any content they don’t like. And shame on the network for caving into the pressure. He didn’t even say anything that bad – but even if he did, that’s freedom of speech.’

‘Jimmy said he’s going to fight this, not even because he cares so much for the show, although he does, but because he cares about the precedent. He can’t make a comment about Charlie Kirk? Look over at all the sh** that they’re saying on Fox. Look at what they say on South Park. This is persecution, and Jimmy isn’t going to stand for it. And he has a lot of friends who are going to cause problems if suddenly he doesn’t have a show. He’ll get every friend he has to stop doing ABC shows. You want to book someone on the view? Good f***ing luck. How f***ing dare they? As p***ed off as I am, you can only imagine how Jimmy is. He’s beside himself. I’ve never seen him this angry, ever. It’s bad.’

[From The Daily Mail]

“He is actively looking for ways to get out of his contract…” I hope not. I hope we’re not there yet. There are other avenues, in my opinion. I also believe the trade papers when they said that Kimmel had a polite conversation with Disney corporate – believe it or not, I think Kimmel likes his job and likes working for ABC, and he’s probably very willing to fight not just for the principle of the matter, but for his crew and everyone who works on JKL.

Screengrab courtesy of JKL/ABC and photos courtesy of Avalon Red.