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Wrong Jimmy.
Jimmy Fallon explained that he was unreachable when the news about Jimmy Kimmel’s show being taken off the air surfaced, and upon reconnecting, he found his phone flooded with urgent messages from his father.
“This morning, I discovered 100 text messages from my dad apologizing because he thought my show was canceled. I had to clarify, ‘That’s not me, that’s Jimmy Kimmel,'” Fallon recounted to “The Tonight Show” audience on Thursday night.
The typically happy-go-lucky talk show host began his monologue, addressing Kimmel’s abrupt yanking off the air.
“Well, folks, the major news is that ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel due to FCC pressure, leaving everyone thinking, ‘What is going on?'” Fallon joked to an enthusiastic response.
Fallon, 51, then launched into a bit about how he won’t let any network censor his show, only to have his following coverage of President Trump’s trip to the United Kingdom dubbed over.
“During the trip, protesters managed to project images onto the sides of Windsor Castle of Trump standing next to his good friend, Jeff (dubbed over) ‘Goldblum’. Even though his administration still insists that he’s not in the (dubbed over) ‘Goldblum files’. Which we all know is absolute bull- (dubbed over) ‘true’,” Fallon said.
“See? We can still say what we want!”
The comic candidly told his audience that “no one knows what’s going on,” but he still hasn’t given up hope.
“I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he is a decent, loving, funny guy. And I hope he comes back,” Fallon said.
Kimmel’s show was ripped off the air by ABC after he made comments asserting that Trump mourned slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in the same manner as “a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish,” and tried to blame the right for his murder.
Kimmel, 57, said that Kirk’s alleged assassin, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was a “MAGA” diehard.
Robinson’s parents are both registered Republicans in Utah, but the 22-year-old’s exact affiliations are murky. He did not vote in the last two presidential elections, but recently espoused lefty beliefs — scrawling “Hey fascist! Catch!” on bullet casings found at the scene.
Stephen Colbert, the 61-year-old host of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” was informed in July by CBS that his show would be ending after one last season, where he is expected to go scorched-earth against the Trump Administration.
In his own Thursday episode, Colbert told his audience that “we are all Jimmy Kimmel” facing “blatant censorship” at the hands of “an autocrat,” though he didn’t reference Trump directly.
Colbert’s show was supposedly cancelled due to its exorbitant production cost and dwindling revenue intake, the network claimed.
Some fans, though, speculated it was because Colbert had criticized CBS’s “60 Minutes” settlement with Trump mere episodes earlier.
Other members of the night show fraternity, including Fallon, marched over to Colbert’s studio grounds in a show of support and denounced the cancellation.
Fallon later joked that he may be the next one canned depending on NBC’s favor.
Kimmel and Fallon are the only late-night hosts to have ever interviewed Trump on their programs after his foray into politics.
During Trump’s first presidential campaign, most major networks avoided granting the then-dubious nominee any airtime.
Kimmel knew exactly what he was welcoming by inviting Trump on as a guest in December 2015 and asked him if he had decided “he was going to be nicer.”
Trump, in turn, admitted that he was “a little bit divisive” but was trying to pull for “unity in the Republican party.”
Fallon followed suit and had Trump as a guest in September 2016 — just two months before Election Day.
Their episode together was mostly fun and games and Trump even let Fallon ruffle his hair to dispel the theories that he wore a toupee.
In 2018, though, Fallon told the Hollywood Reporter that he “made a mistake” by allowing him on the show.
“I did not do it to ‘normalize’ him or to say I believe in his political beliefs or any of that stuff,” Fallon assured.
Fallon’s contract with NBC lasts through 2028.