Stewart opted for satire to critique ABC suspending Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely following comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Colbert took a more serious approach, calling his suspension “blatant censorship”.

When Colbert talked with New Yorker editor David Remnick about Kimmel’s suspension, he said: “What we are seeing now is the government acting at the direction of the president of the United States to put pressure on, to manipulate, to silence and even to shut down institutions of the free word.”

David Letterman, Colbert’s predecessor on The Late Show, lamented the networks’ moves.

“I feel bad about this, because we all see where see this is going, correct? It’s managed media,” Letterman said during an appearance on Thursday at The Atlantic Festival 2025 in New York.

“It’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous.”

He added that people shouldn’t be fired just because they don’t “suck up” to what Letterman called “an authoritarian” president.