Will Jimmy Kimmel Be Back?

I must confess that, of all the outrages we’ve had to bear during the second Trump administration — the cruel deportations, the gutting of vital federal programs, the retribution campaign against Trump’s political enemies — nothing has alarmed or depressed me more than ABC’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel off the air, for comments he made in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder.  

I have been following the late-night comedians as closely as anyone for the past nine years — ever since I wrote a 2016 cover story for Time on “The New Politics of Late Night.” Throughout the Trump era, the newly politicized late-night hosts have been important (if under-appreciated) voices in the national conversation: calling out Trump’s falsehoods and flip-flops, mocking his garbled syntax and schoolyard bluster, unearthing clips of his goofier moments that even the news shows miss. For me, they’ve been a nightly dose of both levity and sanity.  

But the sudden sidelining of Kimmel, combined with threatening words from both Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, has shaken me profoundly. Watching the late-night comedians (yes, I usually stay up for them) has been my way of coping with the stress of living through Trump 2.0. Now, alas, it has become part of it.  

A couple of things to note about the Kimmel affair. For all the mockery and insults that Kimmel hurls at Trump nightly, his offense on Monday night had nothing to do with jokes or comedy. Instead, it was fairly straightforward political comment —  lamenting the speed with which the right was turning Kirk’s death into a political weapon, and implying that the shooter might well be from the political right rather than the left.  

It was puzzling comment (and, of course, turned out to be mistaken), but hardly something that would cause an explosion, except in the radioactive political climate that Kirk’s death has created — and that Kimmel was trying, if rather inelegantly, to tamp down. Of course, he did just the opposite. 

Second, ABC clearly made this move with great reluctance. It was significant, to my mind, that the network’s brief statement did not say that Kimmel’s show was being “suspended” (much less “cancelled,” as Donald Trump seems to think), but rather “preempted” — a TV term that usually implies a more temporary absence. Kimmel is ABC’s signature star (the face of the network at advertiser events), a popular figure in Hollywood (frequent host of the Oscars), and a nightly companion for millions of viewers. I can only assume (and hope) that an acceptable path out of this mess is being brokered behind the scenes — a statement from Kimmel, say, a decent period on the bench, followed by a return to making the same Trump jokes that have never gotten him into trouble before.       

I may be too optimistic. But it’s encouraging that the outcry over Kimmel’s ouster has come, not just from the usual “radical left” suspects, but even from many on the right (like Tucker Carlson), who simply can’t ignore the blatant double standard of a movement that spent years denouncing government censorship of “free speech” now cheering the silencing of a critic of Donald Trump.    

I was also heartened by the reaction of Kimmel’s late-night competitors.  Jon Stewart (returning to The Daily Show on a rare Thursday night) did a pitch-perfect “administration-compliant show” — sarcastically sucking up to Trump for every bumbling moment of his recent trip to London. Stephen Colbert was, typically, more blunt, expressing solidarity with Kimmel while warning that “you cannot give an inch” when the government moves to stifle free speech. Seth Meyers, surprisingly, chose to low-key the issue, simply covering Kimmel in one of his regular “A Closer Look” segments focusing mainly on Trump’s English adventures —  before expressing his support for Kimmel and vowing to “keep doing our show the way we’ve always done it, with enthusiasm and integrity.”

What would late-night life be like if all of them were gone? Well, there was a taste of it over on NBC, where the always sunny Jimmy Fallon made a perfunctory statement of support for Kimmel (“a decent, funny and loving guy, and I hope he’s coming back”), before welcoming his first guest, Tom Llamas, the new anchor of the NBC Nightly News, for a fluffy interview in which the top news story of the week was not even mentioned.  Meanwhile, on ABC, in lieu of Kimmel we’re getting reruns of Celebrity Family Feud. 

At least I may be going to bed earlier.