Bill Simmons says this isn’t the end for his close friend Jimmy Kimmel — and he’s urging his former company to stand behind the late-night host after ABC pulled the plug on his show.
“I hope Jimmy’s show sticks around and I hope ABC sticks by him. If they don’t, it would be pretty cowardly — I don’t think that’s a crazy thing to say,” Simmons said on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “If this really is the end, I think he’ll be fine. He’ll find another platform, he’ll figure out how to get his content out, and I would never bet against him.”
Simmons added that while the decision blindsided him, it might end up sparking something bigger.
“The situation sucked — I can’t believe it happened. It had to be the lowest threshold ever for an overreaction like this. But maybe the way people rallied around the show in the last 24 hours, and rallied around the idea of free speech, maybe we actually needed that.”
Bill Simmons on Jimmy Kimmel and ABC
Bill Simmons, 55, has been friends with Jimmy Kimmel for 24 years, dating back to when he worked on Jimmy Kimmel Live! for 18 months.
On his podcast, Simmons made it clear he supports Kimmel, not the network that indefinitely pulled the late-night host’s show following comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
He sees Kimmel’s situation as different from Stephen Colbert’s, whose show CBS and Paramount are removing from programming. Simmons argues that Kimmel is more the face of ABC than Colbert is for CBS, noting his role hosting Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, helming the Oscars, and leading the network’s upfront presentations.
“I just think he means more to ABC in a bunch of different ways,” Simmons said of Kimmel. “If you compare CBS to ABC, it comes down to leverage and power.”
Simmons added that Kimmel landed in the middle of the network power pendulum. ABC had more ability to push back than CBS, but not nearly the same influence as NBC with Saturday Night Live.
Simmons also highlighted the pending Nexstar-Tegna merger, which requires FCC approval, noting that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had criticized Kimmel both before and after the show was pulled.
He called the removal of Kimmel’s show “censorship.”
“Maybe what Disney is realizing is that at some point, you have to stand for something,” Simmons said. “At some point, you have to stand by a person who’s been one of the best you’ve had for 20-plus years, someone who has elevated your company time and time again, who is truly a face of the brand. Once you start losing your faces, you lose your soul. You’re just another place pumping out content — you might as well be Pluto at this point.
“I think that’s why there’s a little hope with this.”
However, it takes two to tango and Simmons isn’t sure that Kimmel wants to or feels the need to continue the ABC partnership.
Simmons believes believes that should the parties split, Kimmel will be fine and continue to make quality content since he’s “the most competitive person I know.”
Said Simmons: “The bigger question for me: Why does Jimmy need ABC anymore?”
