On HBO’s “Real Time” Friday night, Bill Maher rallied behind Jimmy Kimmel, whose late-night show was suspended this week by ABC, and Maher blasted the Disney-owned network — which more than two decades ago canceled Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” after his comments about the 9/11 attacks.
At the start of his monologue on “Real Time,” Maher quipped, “I know why you’re happy tonight. I’m still on. Oh, my god. Man, talk show hosts are going down like Blockbusters in the ’90s.”
Maher then addressed the topic of the week: “Well, I guess you all heard Jimmy Kimmel, my friend, my compatriot. He’s been canned by ABC for comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s assassin.”
“Jimmy, pal, I am with you, I support you, and on the bright side, you don’t have to pretend anymore that you like Disneyland. That was always a great part of it for me when I got my ass canned over there,” said Maher. He also said, “Jimmy, let me just say, you did a great, funny show for two decades. You should be proud of that. If this firing goes for you the way it did for me, you’ll get 23 years on a better network.”
In fact, Kimmel has not been “fired.” On Wednesday, ABC said “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was “pre-empted indefinitely.” Variety reported that Kimmel and Disney execs are in talks on a compromise to bring the show back on the air.
Maher, observing that “life is fucking weird,” noted that Sept. 17 was “24 years to the day that I made comments on ABC that got me canceled from that network and Jimmy Kimmel took my slot… Oh yes, I got canceled before cancel even had a culture.”
Maher referenced a Variety article from Sept. 30, 2001, headlined, “White House Keeps Heat on ABC’s Maher.” Maher, who said the article is on hung on his wall, said, “This shit ain’t new. It’s worse, we’ll get to that, but you know, ABC, they are steady. ABC stands for ‘Always Be Caving.’”
In September 2001, after the 9/11 attacks, Maher said on ABC’s “Politically Incorrect” that America had been “cowardly” in its military response unlike the terrorists who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center. “We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That’s cowardly,” he said. “Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it’s not cowardly.” In response, advertisers including Sears and FedEx pulled commercials from the show.
A day later, Maher apologized. “In no way was I intending to say, nor have I ever thought, that the men and women who defend our nation in uniform are anything but courageous and valiant, and I offer my apologies to anyone who took it wrong,” he said. However, while ABC kept “Politically Incorrect” on the air for a time, after continued resistance from advertisers it canceled the show in June 2002.
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On the HBO show Friday, Maher also referenced the direct threat FCC chairman Brendan Carr made against ABC and its affiliates if they didn’t they didn’t “take action” on Kimmel (i.e., take his show off the air). “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said on a conservative podcast.
“I am not intimidated by the FCC,” Maher said. (HBO, unlike broadcast TV stations, is not subject to FCC regulatory oversight.) Maher then added: “And if President Trump is watching, I have one thing to say to you. Have you lost weight? You look terrific.”
Maher went on, “But I mean, this intimidation on the right is just so hypocritical. I mean everyone is scared now, and they’re all trying to kowtow. ‘Good Morning America’ is now changing its name to ‘Good Morning America, Even the Scum Who Didn’t Vote for Trump.’”
The talk show host said “the FCC says they’re gonna go after maybe next ‘The View.” On Thursday, Carr said on a radio show, “I think it’s worthwhile to have the FCC look into whether ‘The View’ and some of the programs that you have still qualify as bona fide news programs and therefore exempt from the equal opportunity regime that Congress has put in place.” The hosts of ABC’s “The View” did not discuss their network’s suspension of Kimmel on Thursday and Friday broadcasts.
“I’m friendly with the ladies on ‘The View,’ but they didn’t say anything about this this week, nothing. You know, because it’s never been their thing to weigh in on the issues,” said Maher. “It’s just, you know, it’s just an upbeat party show. That’s why they hired people named Joy [Behar] and Sunny [Hostin] and Whoopi [Goldberg]. Girls, let me tell you: Go out strong, OK? It won’t kill you. I promise! It’s happened to me and I may go out after this show. We don’t know. We do not know.”
In the wake of Kimmel’s suspension by ABC, other current and former late-night hosts have voiced support for him including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Jon Stewart and David Letterman.
— Brian Steinberg contributed to this article.