The world of late night rejoiced on Monday night as news that Jimmy Kimmel would be returning to the airwaves hit just before most of the hosts taped their shows, meaning Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers all weighed in on Disney’s decision to put “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” back on the air.
“Young Jimmy Kimmel’s coming back to television,” Stewart said to a deafening roar of applause from his “Daily Show” audience. “I’ll tell ya, Jimmy Kimmel’s flying high like Advil today,” he quipped, nodding to his opening segment about Trump’s insistence that Tylenol could cause autism if taken by pregnant women.
Stewart then leaned into the boycott that took hold on social media, as people canceled their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions.
“That campaign that you all launched pretending that you were gonna cancel Hulu while secretly racing through four seasons of ‘Only Murders in the Building,’ that really worked. Congratulations,” he joked. “Wasn’t it interesting to try to figure out all the tentacles Disney has in your daily life? It’s one thing to swear off cruises but the Avengers? Nah. How is it possible that by getting rid of one company I can’t watch ‘Winnie the Pooh’ or Monday Night Football? Or listen to early Hilary Duff.”
Stewart devoted his entire main segment to Kimmel’s reinstatement through the lens of the Trump Administration’s efforts to quell free speech, playing clips of Trump insisting he’s for free speech then directly contradicting himself.
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” meanwhile, found the canceled late night host celebrating that with Kimmel back on the air, he’s still late night’s only martyr.
“This is wonderful news for my dear friend Jimmy and his staff. I’m so happy for them. Plus, now that Jimmy’s not being canceled, I get to enjoy [my Emmy],” Colbert joked. “Once more, I am the only martyr in late-night. Wait, unless, CBS, you want to announce anything?”
And over on “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” the frequently political NBC host devoted his “A Closer Look” segment to Trump and free speech, celebrating Kimmel’s return at the end of the clip.
“Minutes before we started taping we got word that our friend Jimmy Kimmel will be back on the air,” Meyers said, also to roars. “There has been a massive national backlash to Trump’s crackdown on free speech, even among conservatives. I haven’t seen a poll yet but I think if you ask Americans if the president should be dictating what TV hosts can and can’t say, you’d get about 3% positive and…” at that point Meyers through to the clip of Trump on Air Force One complaining that TV coverage of him was 97% negative.
Disney decided on Monday afternoon to put Kimmel back on the air after he was pulled over concerns that his planned monologue would further inflame tensions caused by comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s shooter.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” Disney said in a statement. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
Sinclair Broadcasting Group will not be carrying Kimmel’s return, but the affiliate-owner said it’s still in conversations with ABC.
