“It’s wrong and…”: Conan O’Brien opens up about the Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s cancelation

Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show, dubbed Jimmy Kimmel Live!, was pulled off the air indefinitely by ABC after his comments regarding conservative commentator Charley Kirk's death.

The comedian, who began his journey on this talk show in 2003, has continued working as the host and one of the executive producers for nearly 24 seasons. Since then, the show has been nominated for several Emmys and won three of them. In 2018, it also won the Best Talk Show award at the Critics' Choice Awards.

In 2025, Jimmy Kimmel's recent comments on his political satirical show drew ire from conservatives who found them objectionable. It led to ABC, a Disney Entertainment division, pulling it off the air indefinitely. Since then, many celebrities, commentators, and politicians have begun speaking in support of the comedian, who has been working in this profession for many decades.

The recent comment comes from a former late-night talk show host and a Mark Twain prize recipient, Conan O'Brien, who initially worked with NBC before moving to Los Angeles to work with TBS on Conan. In a new social media post, he said,

“The suspension of @jimmykimmel and the promise to silence other Late Night hosts for criticizing the administration should disturb everyone on the Right, Left, and Center. It’s wrong, and anyone with a conscience knows it’s wrong.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live!'s cancellation has led to a slew of reactions from popular figures in the industry

Conan O'Brien recently opened up about the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel's talk show. Besides him, the Daily Show host Jon Stewart also spoke about this topic, appearing on Thursday, instead of on Mondays, when he usually appears on the show on Comedy Central. According to CNN, here's what he said,

“Our great administration has laid out very clear rules on free speech. Now, some naysayers may argue that this administration’s speech concerns are merely a cynical ploy, a thin gruel of a ruse, a smokescreen to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of power and unitary intimidation, principle-less and coldly antithetical to any experiment in a constitutional republic governance. Some people would say that, not me, though. I think it’s great.”

Stewart has also been outspoken about the cancellation of Stephen Colbert's late-night talk show, which is on its way to end next year, despite the show's overall great ratings. In a recent episode, Colbert spoke about the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel's show. Here's a part of his satirical speech, as per Deadline,

“Everything is about corporate relationships. It’s hard to keep track, but remember, ABC is owned by Disney, which also owns Pixar, which is trying to merge with Twizzlers pull and peel, who make the material that Lockheed Martin uses for the O-rings for their Trident II missiles that the Defense Department commissions with the cash it got from its leverage buyout of Claire’s."

Other than him, David Letterman also spoke about this topic during his conversation at The Atlantic Festival. Per Deadline, he said,

“It’s ridiculous. 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, that’s just not how this works.”

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Also read: Late Night host Conan O'Brien talks about Stephen Colbert's contribution to late-night television

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