Jimmy Kimmel snuck in a diss toward CBS’ parent company, Paramount, on Monday during a joint interview with fellow late-night heavyweights on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Kimmel — while sitting alongside “Strike Force Five” co-hosts Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Jimmy Fallon and Colbert — recalled ABC briefly yanking his show off the air last year before pointing to the wave of people who canceled their Disney+ subscriptions in response.
“Why aren’t you people canceling Paramount+? ’Cause you didn’t have it in the first place?” asked Kimmel, whose knock on Paramount’s streaming service drew some laughs from Colbert, Fallon and Meyers.
Kimmel’s quip arrives as his buddy Colbert enters the final stretch at “The Late Show,” which CBS decided to cancel last year due to what the network insisted were “purely” financial reasons. “The Late Show” is set to end on May 21.
Like droves of Colbert’s fans and supporters, Kimmel has questioned such claims, with many viewers suspecting political pressure played a role in Paramount — now led by a Trump-aligned CEO in the wake of last year’s massive merger with Skydance Media — pulling the plug on “The Late Show.”
Kimmel is familiar with facing backlash from the Trump world.
ABC briefly suspended his show in September following complaints from the Trump-friendly Federal Communications Commission chair over his comments on the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
And late last month, Donald and Melania Trump tried to pressure ABC to can Kimmel over his joke that the first lady was glowing “like an expectant widow” in a show filmed days before the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Yet the host has been defiant in response to the president’s complaints.
On Monday, Oliver responded to Kimmel by referring to Paramount’s possible merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns HBO, the network that hosts his “Last Week Tonight” program.
“Jimmy, until the deal goes through, if I can just do a counter to that, Paramount+ might have some good programming unless it’s not going through, which case it can go fuck itself, now and forever,” Oliver joked.
Kimmel, who was asked by Colbert to “make a case for late-night” earlier in the interview, argued that the question shouldn’t even be posed, adding that Ryan Seacrest doesn’t get similar questions about “‘Wheel of Fortune’ or whatever the hell he’s hosting.”
Oliver cracked, “I would actually like to hear Ryan Seacrest defend ‘Wheel of Fortune.’”
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