Staff Reports
Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon are opting out of the ratings race on the single night that matters for one of their own. Both ABC and NBC have confirmed that their flagship late‑night shows will air repeats on the night of Stephen Colbert’s final Late Show episode, a deliberate, high‑profile gesture of solidarity in the face of a corporate cancellation that many are calling suspicious. It’s a small move on the surface — a rerun instead of a new episode — but it carries a big message about who late‑night TV answers to: networks, bosses, or audiences.
A night of solidarity: Kimmel and Fallon go dark for Colbert
Networks don’t hand out reruns on a Thursday night unless someone pushed a button. ABC confirmed Jimmy Kimmel Live! will air a repeat, and NBC quietly said the same for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Both moves are meant to give Stephen Colbert’s send‑off the largest possible audience. That’s the news: two of late night’s biggest names refused to compete with a farewell that their peer deserved, and they made it a coordinated, visible act. Keyword-wise: Stephen Colbert final show, Jimmy Kimmel Fallon go dark, late‑night solidarity — that’s the story editors will point to.
Not just neighborly manners — a show of professional unity
The gesture follows a reunion appearance with Colbert of the so‑called “Strike Force Five,” the five late‑night hosts who banded together during the writers’ and actors’ strikes. The group’s charity podcast back then was billed as support for crews who went without pay. That’s the background that makes this rerun choice more than stage etiquette. It’s colleagues protecting colleagues, and crews protecting crews. If you care about working people behind the camera — the ones who actually make television happen — this matters more than the usual squabble about jokes and monologues.
The corporate shadow: CBS says “financial decision,” critics see retaliation
CBS and Paramount framed the end of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as a “purely financial decision” and announced they would retire the franchise. But the timing and context have made skeptics louder. Colbert had publicly excoriated a $16 million settlement between Paramount and President Donald Trump, calling it a “big, fat bribe,” and voices from inside the industry, even veteran voices like David Letterman, have accused CBS executives of dissembling — Letterman famously called them “lying weasels” in blunt terms. That cluster of facts feeds the suspicion that this was not only about balance sheets, but about who gets punished for speaking up.
Why conservatives should pay attention
Before you roll your eyes at late‑night tweets and ego battles, remember what’s at stake: consolidation of media power, selective enforcement of corporate rules, and the livelihoods of hundreds of crew members. If big broadcast companies can quietly walk away from a storied franchise and tell us it’s all just money, while cutting deals that raise ethical questions, then the problem isn’t left or right — it’s concentrated power with no accountability. The rare public show of unity from Kimmel and Fallon is worth noting for anyone who believes in fair play and free speech, even if you disagree with Colbert’s politics.
So yes, a rerun is just a rerun. But on this night it becomes a statement: late‑night hosts aren’t just entertainers, they’re part of an industry with real people and real principles. Kimmel and Fallon went dark not because they were asked, but because they chose to avoid cheapening a final curtain. That small act might not change corporate calculus — but it does remind viewers that solidarity still exists in an industry all too eager to toss people aside when money speaks loudest. And that, for now, is worth more than a single late‑night laugh.
