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Seth Meyers has responded to what he called President Donald Trump's 'crackdown on free speech' by mocking the commander in chief.
The host of NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers addressed the cancelation of Jimmy Kimmel's longstanding program on his own show Thursday night.
'His administration is pursuing a crackdown on free speech,' the comedian hit out at the president.
'And completely unrelated, I just want to say, before we get started here, that I've always admired and respected Mr. Trump,' he continued, provoking the audience to raucous laughter.
'I've always believed he was a visionary, innovator, a great president , an even better golfer. And if you've ever seen me saying anything negative about him, that's just AI,' the comedian joked.
He then took on a more serious note as he spoke about Kimmel's sudden ouster.
'It is a privilege and an honor to call Jimmy Kimmel my friend, in the same way that it's a privilege and honor to do this show every night,' Meyers said.
'I wake up every day, I count my blessings that I live in a country that at least purports to value freedom of speech, and we're gonna keep doing our show the way we've always done it: with enthusiasm and integrity,' he vowed.
Yet if the president were to get his way, NBC would fire both Meyers and fellow late night host Jimmy Fallon.
He called them 'total losers on Fake News NBC' with 'horrible' ratings in a post on his Truth Social page celebrating the news of the cancelation of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and praising ABC for 'finally having the courage to do what had to be done.'
'Their ratings are also horrible,' Trump said of Meyers and Fallon. 'Do it NBC!!!'
Fallon also seemed to jokingly assuage the president on his own show Thursday night, as he had an announcer deliver any of his punchlines about Trump to make them inoffensive.
'To be honest with you all, I don't know what's going on - no one does,' Fallon said. 'But I do know Jimmy Kimmel and he is a decent, funny and loving guy. And I hope he comes back.'
Speaking off-air during an audience question-and-answer session, Fallon also revealed that he had texted Kimmel after he heard the shocking news.
He added that he loves both Kimmel and Colbert, as he declared: 'We need to entertain and we need people to be happy in this crazy world.'
Colbert was shockingly fired in July after he criticized CBS' parent company, Paramount, for settling a lawsuit with President Trump for $16 million amid a major merger between the company and Skydance.
He argued on his show that the settlement was a 'big, fat, bribe' to the Trump administration to approve the merger.
But Paramount executives announced at the time his show would be continuing through the end of the broadcast season.
In contrast, ABC announced Wednesday that it was suspending Kimmel's show 'indefinitely' following his controversial remarks about the man accused of shooting conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
Instead, investigators have laid out how Tyler Robinson, 22, became radicalized with far-left ideologies and was dating his transgender roommate.
The erroneous claim caused ire among conservatives, and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr even said he was considering an investigation into Kimmel and ABC over the remarks.
'When you look at the conduct that has taken place by Jimmy Kimmel, it appears to be some of the sickest conduct possible,' Carr told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson hours before Kimmel's ouster was revealed.
At the same time, one of the largest local television operators in the country, Nexstar Communications Group, announced it would no longer air Jimmy Kimmel Live! on its 23 ABC-affiliated stations.
'Kimmel's comments about Kirk's death are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse,' said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar's broadcasting division.
Executives at ABC are said to have then conducted an emergency meeting, in which they decided to fire Kimmel.
It now remains unclear whether Fallon and Meyers will suffer the same fate as Colbert and Kimmel.
But when Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, was asked on Thursday whether his agency would target the two late night hosts, he simply said: 'We'll see how this plays out.'
He noted that the United States is now 'in the midst of a massive shift in dynamics in the media ecosystem for lots of reasons, including the permission structure that President Trump's election has provided.
'And I would simply say we're not done yet with seeing the consequences of that shift,' Carr said, ominously.
Hours later, President Trump suggested that networks may lose their broadcasting license if their on-air talent is critical of him.
'They're giving me all this bad press and they're getting a license,' the president old reporters onboard Air Force One. 'I would think maybe their license should be taken away.'
'When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that's all they do - that license, they're not allowed to do that,' he continued, calling the broadcast network 'an arm of the Democrat Party.'
The FCC chair, whom Trump admitted would have to make the ultimate decision to revoke broadcast licenses, echoed the president's remarks - arguing that late night hosts are 'enforcing a very narrow political ideology.'