Bill Maher backs Jimmy Kimmel, recalls own ABC cancellation 24 years ago

“Real Time” host Bill Maher expressed empathy for fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on Friday as a former ABC star who also landed himself in hot water. 

“It was 24 years to the day that I made comments on ABC that got me canceled from that network, and Jimmy Kimmel took my slot,” Maher said during his opening monologue. 

“Oh yes, I got canceled before cancel even had a culture,” he quipped. 

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“ABC, they are steady. ABC stands for ‘Always Be Caving,” Maher later called out his ex-employer. “So Jimmy, pal, I am with you. I support you. And on the bright side, you don’t have to pretend anymore that you like Disneyland.”

Before his decades-long stint at HBO, Maher previously hosted “Politically Incorrect” on ABC, which the network canceled in 2002 after Maher faced backlash for arguing that the 9/11 hijackers weren’t “cowardly” just days after the 2001 terrorist attacks. 

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Kimmel, meanwhile, was pulled off the air after he suggested the accused Charlie Kirk assassin was a Trump supporter.

“Look, I don’t think what he said was exactly right. I don’t,” Maher said. “We don’t agree on that. He [shouldn’t] lose his job for it!”

“Was he on the left? I don’t know that either… it is a fool’s errand to try to say that these nuts who do these things are in a team,” he later said. “This kid doesn’t belong in either party. He belongs in a straitjacket. He’s an outpatient who should not be out! But you have the right to be wrong, or have any opinion you want! That’s what the First Amendment is all about!” 

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Maher notably had a heated exchange with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro last week over the alleged assassin Tyler Robinson’s political ideology.

Before wrapping his monologue, he offered one final message for his ABC successor. 

“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’ll get 23 years at a better network,” Maher told Kimmel. 

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On Monday, Kimmel suggested Robinson was part of the “MAGA gang” despite reports he had a left-wing ideology, which was later reaffirmed in Tuesday’s indictment. 

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel told his audience.

He also mocked President Donald Trump over an exchange he had with a reporter about Kirk’s death, saying, “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of somebody he called a friend. This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish, OK?”

Disney was facing mounting pressure from ABC affiliate stations around the country as well as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over its handling of Kimmel. The company ultimately decided Wednesday it would preempt his show indefinitely.