On HBO’s “real time” on Friday night, Bill Maher gathered behind Jimmy Kimmel, whose late-night show was interrupted by ABC this week, cancelling Maher’s “political wrong” after comments about the 9/11 attack more than 20 years ago.
At the start of his “real-time” monologue, Maher said, “I know why you’re happy tonight. I’m still doing it.
Maher then spoke to this week’s topic. “Well, I think I heard my friend, my compatriot Jimmy Kimmel, who was canned by ABC for comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassin.”
“Jimmy, I’m with you, I’ll support you, and on the bright side, you no longer have to pretend to like Disneyland. He also said, “Jimmy, I’ll say you’ve only done a great, funny show over the course of 20 years. You should be proud of it. If this fire is for you, like for me, you’ll get 23 years with a better network.”
In fact, Kimmel has not been “dismissed.” On Wednesday, ABC said, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” “It was prematurely ahead of time.” Variety reported that Kimmel and Disney executives are discussing a compromise to get the show back into the air.
Maher observed that “life has become strange,” and on September 17th, “24 years of commenting on ABC, was cancelled from that network, Jimmy Kimmel filmed my slot.
Maher has referenced various articles since September 30, 2001 with the headline “The White House holds heat in Maher at ABC.” Maher said the article was hanging on the wall, “This shit is not new. Worse, we’ll get to it, but ABC, they’re stable. The ABC represents “always a cave.” ”
In September 2001, after the attack on September 11th, Maher said he was “political wrong” by the ABC, saying that unlike the terrorists who flew the plane to the World Trade Center, the United States was “co-ill” in its military response. “We were co-ill lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. It’s co-ill,” he said. “Stay when the plane hits the building and say what you want about it, it’s not coronavirus.” In response, advertisers, including Sears and FedEx, pulled commercials from the show.
A day later, Maher apologised. “We weren’t going to say that the men and women who defend our country in uniform were brave and not brave. But ABC has been doing something “political wrong” for a while, but cancelled the show in June 2002 after continuing resistance from advertisers.
Related: Jimmy Kimmel and Disney are working to reach compromises to get his show back
On Friday’s HBO show, Maher also mentioned the direct threats FCC Chairman Brendan Kerr had on ABC and its affiliates. “We can do this in an easy or difficult way,” Carr said on a conservative podcast.
“I’m not threatened by the FCC,” Maher said. (HBO is not subject to FCC regulatory surveillance, unlike broadcast and television stations.) Maher added:
Maher continued. “But this threat on the right is very hypocritical. I’m scared of everyone right now, and they’re all trying to make a koto. “Good Morning America” has been turned into “Good Morning America.”
The talk show host said, “The FCC is planning to chase the next ‘view’. ” On Thursday, Kerr said on a radio show: “I think it’s worth looking into the FCC ‘view’ and some of the programs you still qualify as authentic news programs. The host of ABC’s “The View” did not discuss Kimmel’s suspension of the network on Thursday and Friday broadcasts.
“I’m friendly with the women from “The View,” but they didn’t say anything about this week, nothing. You know. “It’s just that you know, it’s just a bright party show. That’s why they hired people named Joy (Behar), Sunny (Hostin) and Hoopy (Goldberg).
In the wake of Kimmel’s suspension by ABC, other current and former late-night hosts have expressed support for him, including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Myers, John Stewart and David Letterman.
– Brian Steinberg contributed to this article.