HITTING PAUSE

Kimmel Pays Tribute to Colbert With Surprise Schedule Shakeup

The late-night host has only done the show of respect once before.

Jimmy Kimmel is making sure his friend and fellow late-night host won’t need to share the spotlight on his big night.

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! will not air a new show during Stephen Colbert’s final episode of The Late Show on May 21, Kimmel confirmed to LateNighter. The late-night show will instead air a rerun “out of deference to Colbert’s sendoff,” ABC confirmed, according to the site.

The Daily Beast has reached out to Kimmel and ABC for comment.

Kimmel, 58, has only made such a move once before when Colbert’s predecessor, David Letterman, vacated the CBS desk in 2015. “We will have a show tomorrow night, it’ll be a rerun—please do not watch it,” Kimmel said at the time, choking up as he lauded his childhood hero. “Dave is the best, and you should see him.”

Once again, eleven years later, Kimmel is directing his audience to watch the final episode of the CBS show, which Letterman began in 1993.

Not only will it be Colbert’s final episode, but it will also be the end of the network’s entire Late Show series. Colbert’s timeslot will be replaced by Byron Allen, who purchased the time from CBS for his show, Comics Unleashed.

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Kimmel, like Letterman, has been a staunch defender of Colbert, immediately calling out CBS upon hearing of the show’s cancellation.

“F--- you and all your Sheldons CBS,” Kimmel posted to Instagram moments after CBS announced The Late Show‘s impending ending. “Love you, Stephen.” He even paid for billboards to be put up across Los Angeles, impelling Emmy voters to side with Colbert—he eventually did win to a standing ovation.

Conversely, Colbert repeatedly defended Kimmel during his own network spat. After ABC suspended Kimmel for six days due to a controversial monologue joke, Colbert called it a “late-nightmare.”

In addition, Kimmel will join Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver for a Strike Force Five reunion on The Late Show on May 11. Meyers, 52, reportedly spoiled the surprise for his audience during a Q&A, days before CBS officially announced it on Thursday.

The fivesome formed the Strike Force Five podcast during the 2023 writers’ strike to raise funds for their staff, who were out of work during late-night TV’s five-month blackout. Their appearance on Colbert’s final run of shows will be the group’s first official joint onstage appearance.

Letterman, too, will join Colbert soon after the contemporary late-night hosts, on May 14. The late-night veteran has been highly critical of CBS in the wake of Colbert’s ousting, calling them “lying weasels” in an interview with the New York Times last week.

The Late Show‘s penultimate week will close out with guest appearances from Tom Hanks, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Pedro Pascal. CBS will announce Colbert’s final week of guests on Thursday.

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Owen Mason-HillEditorial intern, Obsessed

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