💥 LATE-NIGHT EARTHQUAKE! Stephen Colbert CELEBRATES Jimmy Kimmel’s TRIUMPHANT RETURN After ABC’s SHOCK Suspension — Viewers Stunned as “National Nightmare” Ends in Explosive On-Air Moment!

“Here’s why Disney folded. After Kimmel was suspended, Google searches for ‘cancel Disney+’ and ‘cancel Hulu’ spiked — which explains why the other trending search was ‘how to entertain feral 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 without Bluey?’ he quipped.

“So Disney put Kimmel back on because you, the American people, were upset,” Colbert said. “But not just people. Also Ted Cruz. Cruz was one of the conservatives who were outraged by the administration’s attack on free speech.” Colbert then ran audio of Cruz, and expressed shock that he agreed with Cruz on something.

“Welcome back, Jimmy,” Colbert added. “Long may you wave.”

Last week, Colbert came to the defense of Kimmel, after ABC “indefinitely” suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The news was widely seen as an assault on the First Amendment and free speech rights, after Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr threatened action against Disney if it didn’t bench Kimmel. In an unprecedented threat, Carr went on a far-right podcast to proclaim that the FCC had “remedies we can look at. We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

In his Sept. 18 monologue, Colbert noted that “Shortly after Carr made his statements about ABC, Kimmel gets yanked off the air. This decision came after senior executives at ABC, Disney and affiliates convened emergency meetings during which multiple execs felt that Kimmel had not actually said anything over the line, but the threat of Trump administration retaliation loomed. As one source at ABC put it, they were pissing themselves all day. On the bright side, that proves Disney is No. 1 in streaming.”

Colbert continued in that Sept. 18 monologue, “Carr was quick to reassure everyone posting, ‘While this may be an unprecedented decision, it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community values.’ Well, you know what my community values are, buster? Freedom of speech.”

During that episode “The Late Show” also parodied “Be Our Guest” from “Beauty and the Beast,” in which the character Lumiere sings for Disney employees to “shut your trap” and “the new rule at ABC don’t make fun of Donny T.”

Colbert also called the Kimmel decision “blatant censorship” and added “With an autocrat, you cannot give an inch… Jimmy, I stand with you and your staff 100%.”

Earlier this summer, Kimmel had thrown his support behind Colbert after CBS announced it would cancel “The Late Show” and end that talker’s run in May 2026. “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” even put up Emmy For Your Consideration billboards throwing Kimmel’s support behind Colbert. And it worked: Colbert won the outstanding talk series Emmy at this year’s ceremony.

When Colbert’s show was canceled, it was also seen as a means by Paramount Global to curry favor with the FCC as it needed the agency’s approval to be acquired by Skydance. Both Paramount and Skydance denied that speculation, but the timing of the news still left many curious about how Colbert’s cancellation was handled.

Kimmel later told Variety: “I think we were all shocked and disappointed that this kind of thing is happening in America, and also disappointed that we don’t see more people on the right stepping up and saying, ‘Hey, this is no good.’ Silencing comedians, commentators, whatever you want to call people… I have to say, if Joe Biden had used his muscle to get Sean Hannity kicked off the air, you may be surprised to learn that I would not support that. I would, in fact, support Sean Hannity in that situation, because I thought one of the founding principles of this country was free speech. But people don’t seem to care about protecting it unless you agree with them.”