John Oliver went OFF on ABC and Bob Iger over Jimmy Kimmel‘s suspension!
In Sunday night’s episode of Last Week Tonight, the comedian opened up about the shocking hiatus of Jimmy Kimmel Live! As we’ve been following, Jimmy’s show was put on an indefinite pause last week after his comments about conservatives’ reaction to Charlie Kirk‘s death.
Distribution companies Nexstar and Sinclair announced they’d stop airing the late-night show, and ABC quickly agreed to pull it from the airwaves. The whole thing has sparked mass controversy — even some conservatives have called out the overt threat to freedom of speech. But Kimmel has gotten the most support from his MANY friends in Hollywood, including all the other late-night comedians. And now John is the latest to share his thoughts on his weekly show!
Related: Kimmel Staff Scared To Return To Studio As One Employee Gives Chilling Update
After joking he was “gonna be deported” when the episode aired, the British comic dug into the hot topic on his weekly show. Once he caught his audience up on what happened, he urged Disney to “stand by Kimmel and his staff.” And he had a big message for the CEO:
“History is also going to remember the cowards who definitely knew better but still let things happen, whether it was for money, convenience, or just comfort. … I will say this. If we’ve learned nothing else from this administration’s second term so far, and I don’t think we have, it’s that giving the bully your lunch money doesn’t make him go away. It just makes him come back hungrier each time. They are never going to stop. They have literally said that openly. … Look, at some point you’re going to have to draw a line. So I’d argue, why not draw it right here?”
Referencing issues that led to Stephen Colbert‘s show getting cancelled, he added:
“And when they come to you with stupid, ridiculous demands, picking fights that you know you could win in court instead of rolling over, why not stand up and use four key words they don’t tend to teach you in business school? …And that is, ‘F**k you, make me.’”
John also BLASTED Nexstar’s ulterior motive in trying to win “FCC approval” to acquire its competitor, Tegna:
“The point is, Nexstar badly needs FCC approval, so it is hardly surprising that when Carr specifically said companies should pull Kimmel off the air or face consequences, it quickly complied. Basically, [Chairman] Brendan Carr said ‘jump,’ and Nexstar took his d**k out of their mouth for just long enough to say, ‘How high, exactly?’”
Damn! Oliver went on:
“The sequence of events here could not be clearer, because it was all done in plain view. Carr leaned on broadcasters to take down Kimmel. They did that, sometimes even directly citing Carr while doing so, and then Carr celebrated with a fun [The Office] GIF. That sure seems like a pretty clear case of the government pressuring companies to censor speech. And it’s not like Trump is even trying to hide it.”
While Trump has been hinting at other late-night shows being next, John said he thinks he should be somewhat safe because HBO is “much less susceptible to pressure from the FCC,” noting:
“That is obviously very good news for us, and I really don’t see why that situation should change anytime soon.”
But then the show cut to clips of news coverage about Paramount‘s potentially purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO’s parent company, and John launched into an expletive-filled outburst. Hah!
John ended the rant by urging upset customers to cancel their Disney+ or Hulu subscriptions and to let the company know exactly why when doing so in an effort to stick up for Kimmel and the First Amendment. Wow.
Watch the whole monologue (below):
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[Image via ABC/HBO/Charlie Kirk/AppleTV+/YouTube]
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