John Oliver shared his ideas on the Jimmy Kimmel suspension on Sunday’s (September 21) episode of HBO’s Final Week Tonight, the place he inspired viewers to cancel their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions.
After calling the choice to droop Jimmy Kimmel Reside! a “clear case of the federal government making an attempt to censor speech,” Oliver mentioned that Disney and ABC must be standing by Kimmel within the face of presidency censorship. The comic then famous there are methods viewers can “encourage them to try this.”
“You could possibly exert stress on them by canceling Disney+ or Hulu,” Oliver said. “Google searches on which have skyrocketed prior to now few days.”
Oliver’s feedback come simply days after She-Hulk (which streams on Disney+) star Tatiana Maslany inspired her followers to do the identical.
Kimmel was “suspended indefinitely” on Wednesday (September 17) over feedback he made about Charlie Kirk‘s deadly capturing on Monday’s (September 15) Jimmy Kimmel Live. This got here after highly effective station group Nexstar introduced it could preempt the present on its 32 ABC affiliate stations late Wednesday.
Earlier that day, Trump-appointed Federal Communications Fee chairman Brendan Carr informed right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson, “We are able to do that the simple manner or the laborious manner. These corporations can discover methods to vary conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there’s going to be extra work for the FCC forward.”
“ABC and its dad or mum firm Disney nonetheless have an opportunity to do the correct factor right here. I do get that the simpler path for them proper now could be to maintain him off the air and the administration off their again,” Oliver added on Sunday’s present. “Although, I’ll level out, that was the obvious argument for ABC paying Trump $15 million final yr, and the way did that work out for them?”
Oliver was referencing the December 2024 settlement over Trump’s defamation lawsuit towards ABC Information. “Giving the bully your lunch cash doesn’t make him go away; it simply makes him come again hungrier every time. They’re by no means going to cease,” the comic added, addressing Disney CEO Bob Iger. “In some unspecified time in the future, you’re going to must attempt to attract a line. Why not draw it proper right here?”
He continued, “And once they come to you with silly ridiculous calls for, selecting fights that you realize you would win in court docket as an alternative of rolling over, why not get up and use 4 key phrases they don’t have a tendency to show you in enterprise college. Not ‘Okay, you’re the boss.’ Not ‘No matter you say goes.’ However as an alternative, the one phrase that may genuinely make a weak bully go away. And that’s, ‘F*** you, make me.’”
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Final Week Tonight with John Oliver, Sundays, 11/10c, HBO