Stephen Colbert, whose namesake late-night show is set to be pulled off the air in May, defended Kimmel during his opening monologue on Thursday night.
He started the show saying, “Tonight, we are all Jimmy Kimmel,” calling the suspension “blatant censorship.”
“The Late Show” posted a clip of Colbert’s comments on Kimmel on its Instagram account. The post was captioned, “The Late Show stands with Jimmy Kimmel and his staff.”
In his monologue, Colbert referenced a report from Rolling Stone on Wednesday about Kimmel and ABC.
“As one source at ABC put it, they were pissing themselves all day. On the bright side, that proves Disney is No. 1 at streaming,” Colbert said.
Colbert then cited an X post that the FCC’s Carr wrote on Wednesday. Carr said it was important for broadcasters to oppose “programming that they determine falls short of community values.”
“Well, you know what my community values are, buster? Freedom of speech,” Colbert said on Thursday, to loud cheers from the audience.
“People across the country are shocked by this blatant assault on the freedom of speech,” he added.
