When ABC executives instructed Jimmy Kimmel final month that his present was being pulled off the air, the late-night present’s viewers was seated, a visitor chef had already began making meals, the musical visitor had carried out a warm-up act, and Kimmel was in the lavatory.
“It was about 3:00; we tape our show at 4:30,” Kimmel instructed Stephen Colbert on an episode of “The Late Show” Tuesday. “I’m in my office, typing away as I usually do. I get a phone call. It’s ABC. They say they want to talk to me. This is unusual: They, as far as I knew, didn’t even know I was doing a show previous to this.”
Kimmel mentioned he had 5 writers in his workplace at the time, and the solely personal place the place he might take the name was the lavatory.
“So I go into the bathroom, and I’m on the phone with the ABC executives. and they say, ‘Listen, we want to take the temperature down.
We’re concerned about what you’re going to say tonight, and we decided that the best route is to take the show off the air.’”
The viewers booed, and Kimmel joked: “That’s what I said: I started booing.”
“I said, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ and they said, ‘Well, we think it’s a good idea.’ Then there was a vote, and I lost the vote.”
Kimmel mentioned he referred to as a few of the present’s government producers into his workplace to share the information, and he turned white.
“I thought, that’s it. It’s over, it’s over. I was like, I’m never coming back on the air.”
Kimmel mentioned the present needed to ship the seated viewers house. Chef Christian Petroni’s ready meatballs and polenta that he had been cooking earlier than the taping went to waste. Future musical visitor Howard Jones, nonetheless, taped a music for a future episode: “Things Can Only Get Better,” which Kimmel acknowledged was ironic.
ABC suspended Kimmel’s present in mid-September for a number of days after a controversial monologue that talked about Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer – and the right-wing response to Kirk’s homicide. Two days later, FCC Chair Brendan Carr, on a conservative podcast, threatened to drag ABC affiliate broadcast licenses in response. Then Nexstar — the station group which airs “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in roughly two dozen markets — introduced they might not air the present. Another affiliate, Sinclair, adopted go well with. And hours later, Kimmel took ABC executives’ name in the lavatory.
Kimmel returned to the air the following Tuesday with an emotional monologue — and mega-ratings.
Colbert, who additionally appeared as a visitor on Brooklyn taping of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Tuesday, mentioned he might empathize with Kimmel. The CBS star mentioned executives had made the decision to end his show whereas Colbert was on trip. His supervisor, James Dixon, whom he shares with Kimmel, waited till Colbert returned to share the information.
Recounting his want to inform his viewers about the information instantly — regardless of the undeniable fact that “Late Night” is ready to run by means of the spring of 2026 — Colbert instructed Kimmel that at the finish of the following present, he requested his viewers to stay of their seats for yet another phase. But he had hassle delivering his traces and flubbed the line — twice.
“I was so nervous about doing it proper, ‘cause there was nothing in the prompter. I was just speaking off the cuff,” Colbert said. “They started going, ‘Come on Stephen, you can do it,” because I always messed up on the sentence that told them what was happening. And then I got to the sentence that actually told them what’s occurring, they usually didn’t giggle.”
Although CBS proprietor Paramount mentioned the cancellation of “The Late Show” was strictly a enterprise choice, many media critics — and Kimmel — questioned that rationale, and a few have mentioned it was possible a political choice to appease the Trump administration that wanted to approve Paramount’s merger with Skydance.
Both Colbert and Kimmel have been frequent and unabashed critics of President Donald Trump and his administration. Trump publicly celebrated when Colbert was canceled, saying in a social media publish that Kimmel and NBC’s Seth Meyers had been “next.” Trump once more celebrated when Kimmel was pulled off the air however criticized — and threatened — ABC when it introduced him again on.
Meyers made an look on Kimmel’s present Tuesday, and the three late evening hosts posed for {a photograph} posted to Instagram. Kimmel added the caption: “Hi Donald!”
Kimmel joked with Colbert that Tuesday’s taping was, “The show the FCC doesn’t want you to see.” He launched Colbert as, “The Emmy-winning late-night talk show host who, thanks to the Trump administration, is now available for a limited-time only.”
Kimmel quipped that he was “so honored to be here with my fellow no-talent, late-night loser.” As for the rationale for inviting Colbert onto his program: “We thought it might be a fun way to drive the president nuts.”