Jimmy Fallon has voiced support for Jimmy Kimmel following ABC’s decision to pull “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from its schedule without a return date, telling viewers he hopes his fellow late-night host is reinstated. Addressing the matter during his NBC program, Fallon said he did not have full visibility into the dispute but praised Kimmel’s character and made clear what outcome he wants to see. “I don’t know what’s going on, and no one does,” he told his studio audience. “But I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he’s a decent, funny and loving guy, and I hope he comes back.” The remarks drew applause and marked one of the first on-air reactions from a rival late-night host to a suspension that has quickly become a national flashpoint.
People later reported Fallon used his opening to underline that his comments were about a colleague rather than the underlying dispute, reiterating that he hopes Kimmel “gets to go back on ABC.” Business Insider likewise summarized the segment, saying Fallon expressed confusion over the specifics, called Kimmel “a decent, funny and loving guy,” and told viewers he hoped the show would return, a stance delivered with light jokes about censorship but without delving into ABC’s deliberations.
ABC announced on Wednesday that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would be “pre-empted indefinitely,” a step the network took after two of the country’s largest owners of ABC affiliates—Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group—said they would no longer carry the program. The Associated Press reported that the station-group decisions, coupled with public pressure from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, precipitated the network move to bench one of late night’s longest-running franchises.
CBS News described the action as a network-level pre-emption rather than a cancellation, noting that ABC said it would substitute other programming in the time slot while it reviews next steps. The station-group refusals sharply curtailed the show’s national reach even before the network acted, an uncommon dynamic in a genre where, historically, affiliates have carried marquee late-night programming with limited friction.