David Letterman takes part in the 2025 Atlantic Festival at PAC NYC on Sept. 18, 2025 in New York City.
Michael Loccisano | Getty Images
Late-night legend David Letterman on Thursday called ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show “ridiculous,” saying, “You can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office.”
“I feel bad about this because we all see where this is going, correct?” Letterman told Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic Festival in New York City.
“It’s managed media,” said Letterman, who hosted shows on CBS and NBC for more than three decades.
“And it’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous,” he said.
ABC, which is a subsidiary of Disney, on Wednesday night said it was pulling the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show off the air “indefinitely” after Kimmel linked the alleged killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk to the MAGA movement of President Donald Trump. Kimmel has not been fired.
Letterman on Thursday compared ABC’s move to the decision by CBS in July to cancel its “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” effective next May.
A week after CBS cancelled the Colbert show — which has mocked Trump — the Federal Communications Commission approved an $8 billion merger between the network’s owner, Paramount, and Skydance Media.
“They took care of Colbert,” Letterman said Thursday.
“That was rude, that was inexcusable, the man deserves a great deal of credit, he’s in the Hall of Fame nine times, and to be manipulated like that, because the Ellison family [which owned Skydance] didn’t want to trouble Donald Trump with this move, so they got rid of him,” Letterman said.
“Not only got rid of him, got rid of the whole franchise.”
Letterman said he’s been in touch with Kimmel since the suspension was announced.
“He was nice enough to text me this morning,” Letterman said. “And he’s sitting up in bed taking nourishment. He’s going to be fine.”
Trump on Wednesday night crowed about Kimmel’s suspension and mentioned Colbert.
“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.
