{"id":241796,"date":"2025-09-20T16:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T16:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/241796\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T16:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T16:10:09","slug":"bill-maher-defends-my-compatriot-jimmy-kimmel-slams-abc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/241796\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Maher Defends ‘My Compatriot’ Jimmy Kimmel, Slams ABC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOn HBO\u2019s \u201cReal Time\u201d Friday night, Bill Maher<\/a> rallied behind Jimmy Kimmel<\/a>, whose late-night show was suspended this week by ABC, and Maher blasted the Disney-owned network \u2014 which more than two decades ago canceled Maher\u2019s \u201cPolitically Incorrect\u201d after his comments about the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the start of his monologue on \u201cReal Time,\u201d Maher quipped, \u201cI know why you\u2019re happy tonight. I\u2019m still on. Oh, my god. Man, talk show hosts are going down like Blockbusters in the \u201990s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMaher then addressed the topic of the week: \u201cWell, I guess you all heard Jimmy Kimmel, my friend, my compatriot. He\u2019s been canned by ABC for comments he made about Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJimmy, pal, I am with you, I support you, and on the bright side, you don\u2019t 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,\u201d said Maher. He also said, \u201cJimmy, 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\u2019ll get 23 years on a better network.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn fact, Kimmel has not been \u201cfired.\u201d On Wednesday, ABC said \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d was \u201cpre-empted indefinitely.\u201d Variety reported that Kimmel and Disney execs are in talks on a compromise to bring the show back on the air<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tMaher, observing that \u201clife is fucking weird,\u201d noted that Sept. 17 was \u201c24 years to the day that I made comments on ABC that got me canceled from that network and Jimmy Kimmel took my slot\u2026 Oh yes, I got canceled before cancel even had a culture.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tMaher referenced a Variety article from Sept. 30, 2001, headlined, \u201cWhite House Keeps Heat on ABC\u2019s Maher.\u201d<\/a> Maher, who said the article is on hung on his wall, said, \u201cThis shit ain\u2019t new. It\u2019s worse, we\u2019ll get to that, but you know, ABC, they are steady. ABC stands for \u2018Always Be Caving.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn September 2001, after the 9\/11 attacks, Maher said on ABC\u2019s \u201cPolitically Incorrect\u201d that America had been \u201ccowardly\u201d in its military response unlike the terrorists who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center. \u201cWe have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That\u2019s cowardly,\u201d he said. \u201cStaying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it\u2019s not cowardly.\u201d In response, advertisers including Sears and FedEx pulled commercials from the show.<\/p>\n

\n\tA day later, Maher apologized. \u201cIn 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,\u201d he said. However, while ABC kept \u201cPolitically Incorrect\u201d on the air for a time, after continued resistance from advertisers it canceled the show in June 2002.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Jimmy Kimmel and Disney Working to Reach Compromise to Bring His Show Back<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tOn the HBO show Friday, Maher also referenced the direct threat FCC chairman Brendan Carr made against ABC and its affiliates if they didn\u2019t\u00a0they didn\u2019t \u201ctake action\u201d<\/a>\u00a0on Kimmel (i.e., take his show off the air). \u201cWe can do this the easy way or the hard way,\u201d Carr said on a conservative podcast.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am not intimidated by the FCC,\u201d Maher said. (HBO, unlike broadcast TV stations, is not subject to FCC regulatory oversight.) Maher then added: \u201cAnd if President Trump is watching, I have one thing to say to you. Have you lost weight? You look terrific.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMaher went on, \u201cBut I mean, this intimidation on the right is just so hypocritical. I mean everyone is scared now, and they\u2019re all trying to kowtow. \u2018Good Morning America\u2019 is now changing its name to \u2018Good Morning America, Even the Scum Who Didn\u2019t Vote for Trump.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe talk show host said \u201cthe FCC says they\u2019re gonna go after maybe next \u2018The View.\u201d On Thursday, Carr said on a radio show, \u201cI think it\u2019s worthwhile to have the FCC look into whether \u2018The View\u2019 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.\u201d The hosts of ABC\u2019s \u201cThe View\u201d did not discuss their network\u2019s suspension of Kimmel on Thursday and Friday broadcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m friendly with the ladies on \u2018The View,\u2019 but they didn\u2019t say anything about this this week, nothing. You know, because it\u2019s never been their thing to weigh in on the issues,\u201d said Maher. \u201cIt\u2019s just, you know, it\u2019s just an upbeat party show. That\u2019s why they hired people named Joy [Behar] and Sunny [Hostin] and Whoopi [Goldberg]. Girls, let me tell you: Go out strong, OK? It won\u2019t kill you. I promise! It\u2019s happened to me and I may go out after this show. We don\u2019t know. We do not know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the wake of Kimmel\u2019s suspension by ABC, other current and former late-night hosts have voiced support for him including Stephen Colbert<\/a>, Jimmy Fallon<\/a>, Seth Meyers<\/a>, Jon Stewart<\/a> and David Letterman<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u2014 Brian Steinberg contributed to this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On HBO\u2019s \u201cReal Time\u201d Friday night, Bill Maher rallied behind Jimmy Kimmel, whose late-night show was suspended this…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":241797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4087,171,11171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-241796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bill-maher","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115237501415510005","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}