“We will be off tomorrow night out of respect for our colleague and friend Stephen Colbert and the writers, producers,” Kimmel said at the beginning of his Wednesday show. “His final show on CBS airs opposite ours. I think you know how I feel about the fact that they’re being pushed out. I hope the people who did the pushing feel ashamed of themselves tonight, although I know they probably won’t. That being said, I think it is most important to congratulate Stephen and the team at The Late Show for all the great work and all the great work you will continue to do in other venues, I have no doubt. Everyone at that show has always been very gracious to us. We never felt like we were competing against them. It was nothing like the old days of late night. I always loved being on Stephen’s show. I loved having him on ours. I hope we’re able to do that again. I hope he comes to visit as many times as possible. And on behalf of everyone at our show, we wanna say to everyone at your show, it has been a pleasure to work alongside you. I will be watching tomorrow night. I hope that those of you who watch our show will also tune into CBS—for the last time. Don’t ever watch it again, but watch tomorrow night to wish Stephen and our friends at The Late Show a fond farewell.”
Last week, when visiting Colbert’s show alongside their fellow late night hosts Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, and John Oliver, Kimmel noted how when his show was briefly taken off the air, there were boycotts against ABC and parent company Disney. “Why aren’t you people cancelling Paramount+?” he asked during that segment. “Because you didn’t have it in the first place?” Time will tell whether fewer people start tuning in to CBS without Colbert, or if they want to keep watching for some unleashed comics and Tony Dokoupil almost making it to China.
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