Late Night Hosts Land Some Blows vs Trump Administration

Late night talk show hosts are hitting back against the Trump administration. And, it’s been surprising in the face of all that controversy.

President Donald Trump’s FCC czar Brendan Carr has not been shy about threatening different late night talk show hosts. As the sitting president of the United States, Trump often comes into the crosshairs of various jokes and bits from the plethora of Jimmy’s and other late night performers. 

The administration has sought to make an example out of these hosts by threatening their broadcast licenses and other escalations. But plainly, it hasn’t worked. A new piece from The Washington Post has the breakdown of how this whole segment of tilting at windmills has been going for the administration.

Chris Hacker from The Washington Post put together a graph that illustrates the ways the jokes about Brednan Carr and Trump have kept up and surprised the “investigations” and threats against Disney, ABC, NBC, CBS and others since November of 2024. 

Just last week at a corporate event, Jimmy Kimmel joked about how often he finds himself on the other side of one of the president’s screeds. Despite that vitriol from the Truth Social set, the ABC late night host had a quip at the ready.

Kimmel said, “Yes, the president tried to get me canceled over the last six months. That’s one way to look at it. Another way is you could also say I’ve ‘generated unparalleled engagement across a variety of platforms.’” 

The Trump Administration tries to silence late night comedy

Saying that the Trump administration has taken special aim at these late night holds isn’t mere conjecture. You have the acting head of the FCC making plain threats against folks making jokes on broadcast television after dinner time.

 In the fall of last year, Brendan Carr singled out Jimmy Kimmel during a podcast with Benny Johnson. In any other line of work, you couldn’t mistake these words for anything but an explicit argument for ABC to discipline the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host.

“There are avenues here for the FCC, so there are some ways in which I need to be a little careful, because I could be called wholly to become a judge on some of these claims that come up,” he explained. 

Carr continued, “Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, we can do this the easy way, or these companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, or Kimmel, or these going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” 

 Luckily for Kimmel, fans came to his aid in large numbers. ABC affiliates on the ground level were trying to complete a merger involving the Nexstar conglomerate. So, they didn’t want to get on Donald Trump’s bad side. (Not at all how any of this is supposed to work. But, that’s how it goes a lot of the time now that the second administration has been in office.)

People have lost the plot

 In times of uncertainty, the American populace has prized the role of a late night talk show host for multiple decades now. All the Jimmies,Desus and Mero, Chelsea Handler, Taylor Tomlinson, The Dude from the Soup, and others have taken up the banner at different points. Now, with the future of the medium thrown into chaos by social media, it feels like the FCC is taking the opportunity to toss some dirt in too.

Luckily, it seems like sustained pressure works in all forms against this administration. People legitimately flipped out when Kimmel was off the air for a few days. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if it got any more serious.

(featured image: CBS)

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