Stephen Colbert Reacts to Return of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ Following Suspension

Jimmy Kimmel’s “indefinite” hiatus is over, and Stephen Colbert has thoughts.

On the Monday, Sept. 22 edition of CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — which was canceled in July after 10 seasons — its host, 61, detailed how he’s feeling after Kimmel’s late-night program returned to air following a brief suspension.

“We do, like, 160 of these a year or something, and when I have the chance, it’s always nice to start the show with some good news,” Colbert said. “Well, just a few hours before we taped this broadcast, we got word that our long national late-nightmare is over, because Disney announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live will return to air on ABC tomorrow, Tuesday night. Come on! Wonderful news for my dear friend Jimmy and his amazing staff.”

Following Jimmy Kimmel Live! being pulled by ABC on Wednesday, Sept. 17 (days after its host made comments about the death of right-wing political commentator Charlie Kirk), the Walt Disney Company announced that it would be returning to air.

In a Monday, Sept. 22 statement, Disney confirmed that it “made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country” and has since decided to bring the show back.

“It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive,” the statement read. “We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be returning to ABC on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Colbert previously called Kimmel’s removal from ABC’s lineup a form of “blatant censorship,” sharing during a taping of his Thursday, Sept. 18, show that he stands with Kimmel and his staff “100%,” per CNBC.

“I’ll say this for my network. They wouldn’t have done this. Now regardless of what you think, that has already been done and how that looks, this is weak. This is blatant censorship,” he said, per the New York Post.

Colbert’s comments come after a spokesperson for ABC confirmed to PEOPLE that Kimmel’s show would be off the air “indefinitely” at that point — a decision that came after Kimmel’s on-air comments about Kirk, who was fatally shot while speaking at a campus event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.

During the Sept. 15 episode of his show, Kimmel said: “The MAGA Gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”

He previously offered his condolences to Kirk’s family on social media, writing, “Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.”

Kimmel’s removal followed Nexstar Media’s — the largest local broadcast and digital media company in the U.S — announcement that it would acquire rival broadcast company Tegna for $6.2 billion and place itself in 80% of America’s TV-owning households, per a press release. The acquisition that requires final approval from the Donald Trump-controlled FCC.

Nexstar later shared that it “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”

The company recently announced plans to acquire rival broadcast company Tegna for $6.2 billion, putting Nexstar in 80% of America’s TV-owning households, per a press release. The acquisition will require final approval from the Trump-controlled Federal Communications Commission.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr praised Nexstar for pressuring ABC to pull Kimmel’s, posting on X that “it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community values.”

In the aftermath of the announcement, President Donald Trump shared his thoughts about Kimmel’s hiatus and characterized it as a firing. “Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else and he said a horrible thing about a great man named Charlie Kirk,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person, he had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago.”

“You can call that free speech or not,” the president continued. “He was fired for lack of talent.”

Before Disney’s announcement on Sept. 22, more than 400 celebrities signed an open letter in support of Kimmel and the freedom of speech, published by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Among those to sign the letter were Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Tom Hanks, Selena Gomez, Pedro Pascal, Diego Luna, Martin Short, Meryl Streep and Kerry Washington.