John Oliver Finally Speaks Out on Jimmy Kimmel Suspension: It's Not What You Think

There is a story rocketing around the internet claiming Jimmy Kimmel Live! got yanked off the air after Kimmel went at Charlie Kirk, and that John Oliver basically sounded the First Amendment alarm about it. It is a wild read. It is also full of red flags. So here is what the report says, and why parts of it do not add up.

What the report claims

According to the piece making the rounds, ABC abruptly pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! after Kimmel made comments about Charlie Kirk that many deemed inappropriate. Supposedly, a bunch of late-night hosts — John Oliver included — jumped in to talk about what that means for free speech. The article also says CBS canceled Stephen Colbert's show shortly before this because of his political commentary.

On his latest episode of Last Week Tonight, Oliver allegedly went hard at Kimmel's suspension, arguing free speech is under attack in the U.S. and calling this move 'by no means the first casualty in Trump's attacks on free speech.' The line getting the most oxygen is this one:

'He is just the latest canary in the coal mine... A mine that at this point now seems more dead canary than coal' (the report cites Business Insider for that quote).

The write-up says Oliver devoted most of his show to the topic. It also claims he singled out Brendan Carr, identified as the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, suggesting Carr's reaction to Kimmel's segment directly triggered the suspension.

The moment from Kimmel's show that allegedly set everything off is this: he said, 'We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.'

Before Oliver weighed in, the piece says Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and Jon Stewart had already spoken up about Kimmel's suspension — but Oliver's segment was more detailed and more critical. It adds that Colbert and Meyers also framed the suspension as an attack on free speech. And it ends on a cliffhanger: the future of Jimmy Kimmel Live! is supposedly in jeopardy.

Why this raises eyebrows

• Charlie Kirk has not been murdered. That single line in the quoted Kimmel monologue breaks the entire premise.
• Brendan Carr is an FCC commissioner, not the chair. And the FCC does not summarily suspend individual network talk shows over political remarks.
• The report says CBS canceled Stephen Colbert's show over his political commentary. There has been no credible, mainstream confirmation of that.
• It claims ABC abruptly pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! over the Kirk comments. Again, no reliable confirmation from the network or the show.
• The 'via Business Insider' attribution for the Oliver quote is cited in the piece, but the sourcing is vague. If Oliver really dedicated most of an episode to this, you would expect multiple reputable outlets to be all over it.

So what is actually going on?

Short version: this sounds like a mash-up of culture-war outrage and late-night rumor that trips over basic facts. The story keeps the tone of a First Amendment emergency, but then leans on details — Kirk's supposed murder, Carr's job title, instant network cancellations — that do not line up with how any of this works in the real world.

If the goal is to argue about free speech and broadcast standards, that is a real conversation. But on the specifics here, treat this one as unverified at best until ABC, CBS, or the shows themselves go on the record. If that changes, I will update with the concrete details — not the game of telephone.