<\/p>\n
David Letterman denounced ABC\u2019s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/em><\/a> following pressure from the Trump<\/a> administration, saying, \u201cThis is misery,\u201d\u00a0 during a panel at the Atlantic Festival on Thursday, Sept. 18 (via Variety<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n \u201cWe see where this is all going, correct?\u201d Letterman said. \u201cIt\u2019s managed media. And it\u2019s no good. It\u2019s silly. It\u2019s ridiculous. And you can\u2019t go around firing somebody because you\u2019re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That\u2019s just not how this works.\u201d<\/p>\n More from Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n He added, \u201cThe institution of the president of the United States ought to be bigger than a guy doing a talk show.\u201d<\/p>\n ABC abruptly pulled Kimmel<\/em> on Wednesday following conservative outcry over a joke the host made during a recent monologue about the suspect accused<\/a> of killing Charlie Kirk<\/a>. Trump\u2019s\u00a0Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, had called on licensed broadcasters to stop airing the show, and not long after Nexstar and Sinclair<\/a> \u2014 two giant media conglomerates that own myriad ABC affiliates around the country \u2014 announced their decision to preempt his program. ABC made its decision to pull the show soon after.<\/p>\n But as Letterman noted, this kind of top-down pressure should be seen as a surprise, with the former Late Show<\/em> host saying Kimmel\u2019s removal \u201cwas predicted by our president right after Stephen Colbert got walked off.\u201d He added, \u201cSo you\u2019re telling me this isn\u2019t premeditated at some level?\u201d<\/p>\n Letterman was likely referring to a Trump post on Truth Social<\/a> shared not long after CBS announced it was<\/a> ending The Late Show<\/em>. While the network insisted the decision was a financial one,\u00a0many have speculated<\/a>\u00a0that CBS\u2019s parent company, Paramount, axed the late-night institution as a way to appease Trump as it sought FCC approval for its merger with Skydance.<\/span> (The deal ultimately went through.)<\/p>\n Trump denied being responsible for Colbert\u2019s firing, insisting it was for a \u201cpure lack of TALENT.\u201d The president went on to say: \u201cNext up will be an even less talented Jimmy Kimmel, and then, a weak, and very insecure, Jimmy Fallon. The only real question is, who will go first? Show Biz and Television is a very simple business. If you get Ratings, you can say or do anything. If you don\u2019t, you always become a victim. Colbert became a victim to himself, the other two will follow.\u201d<\/p>\n Letterman went on to say that Kimmel had texted him Thursday morning, and he suggested the host was doing well. \u201cHe\u2019s up in bed, taking nourishment,\u201d Letterman said. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n Others who have spoken out<\/a> against ABC\u2019s decision to \u201cindefinitely\u201d pull Kimmel<\/em> include Marc Maron, Jean Smart, and Mike Birbiglia. Wanda Sykes \u2014 who was set to appear on the show last night \u2014 said of Trump, \u201cHe didn\u2019t end the Ukraine war, or solve Gaza, within his first week. But he did end freedom of speech within his first year. Hey, for those of you who pray, now\u2019s the time to do it. Love you, Jimmy.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" David Letterman denounced ABC\u2019s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live! following pressure from the Trump administration, saying, \u201cThis is misery,\u201d\u00a0 during a panel at the Atlantic Festival on Thursday, Sept. 18 (via Variety). \u201cWe see where this is all going, correct?\u201d Letterman said. \u201cIt\u2019s managed media. And it\u2019s no good. It\u2019s silly. It\u2019s ridiculous. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2032813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[375058,23060,22653,132814],"class_list":["post-2032812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-david-letterman","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-stephen-colbert","tag-trump-administration"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/David-Letterman-Slams-\u2018Ridiculous-Decision-to-Pull-\u2018Jimmy-Kimmel-Live.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2032812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2032813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2032812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2032812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2032812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}