The Roll Up: September 23, 2025 

TL;DR:  Jimmy Kimmel returns to the airwaves tonight, just six days after ABC suspended his show following Kimmel's remarks on the Charlie Kirk assassination. This short-lived suspension comes after CBS shocked fans of Stephen Colbert exactly two months earlier when it announced his late night show would end next year. Which move fired up social media more? Here's what we know:

Late night network TV was once the sole domain of Johnny Carson and NBC's Tonight Show. But Carson's retirement made way for warring factions across the airwaves to strive to be the new king of late night. Hollywood publications used barrels of ink to chronicle the rise and fall of Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O'Brien, while also devoting space to late-late hosts like Craig Ferguson, James Corden and Seth Meyers. They even covered the many pretenders to the throne, including everyone from Arsenio Hall to Pat Sajak.

But the modern battle for late night began once current hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert took over on their respective networks. By 2015, each had settled into his show and the new war was on. Political jokes have been a staple for late night TV and the new hosts--especially Kimmel and Colbert--made them part of their nightly fare, too. Fallon, cultivating his "nice guy" image, pulled political punches more often that the others, famously meeting with a great deal of criticism for a softball appearance by Donald Trump just seven weeks before the 2016 election--during which Fallon famously tousled Trump's elaborately-coiffed hair.

The decisions in the last two months by CBS and ABC to sideline Colbert and Kimmel have created a whole new war for late night--this time on social media as supporters and critics line up to have their say about Stephen and Jimmy's fate. Rolli IQ Social Media Intelligence, looking at the five-day period after each host's removal was announced, shows Kimmel winning this battle in the war. Based on volume of engagement, Kimmel's suspension has generated more than double the amount of engagement the Colbert announcement prompted.

Sixteen and a half million engagements on Twitter/X, YouTube, Blue Sky and Reddit in just five days is a lot, making this one of the most prominent issues on social media. For comparison, a Rolli IQ search of the term "Epstein" over a recent seven-day period yielded only 11 million engagements.

Colbert's engagement numbers in July were impressive on their own, even if dwarfed by the surge about Kimmel. In the five-day period following the CBS announcement, engagement over Colbert reached nearly 8 million instances.

Not Everyone is Posting for the Same Reason

What may tell us more about why Kimmel is getting so much more traction on social media is the nature of those making the posts. The two Twitter/X profile summaries below show much more of a political element to the Kimmel posts (top) compared to the Colbert posts (bottom). Rolli IQ's AI analysis shows those interested in politics as the first major contributor to the Kimmel engagement, while they rank second for Colbert. This is probably a result of Kimmel's suspension being entirely about a political issue, while Colbert's cancellation was characterized by CBS and others as more of a business decision--though many found that to be a smokescreen. 

Rolli IQ Twitter/X Profile Summary for "kimmel"

Rolli IQ Twitter/X Profile Summary for "colbert"

Likewise, you can see similar comments in the Rolli IQ AI analysis of the nature of the comments. These summaries (Kimmel on top and Colbert on bottom) help make sense of the positive-negative ratio of the engagement seen in the graphics at the top of this piece. While Kimmel's engagement was overwhelmingly negative, we're seeing a combination of negative feelings about ABC and about Kimmel and his comments. Colbert's positive engagement comes from those who feel his time should end and are supportive of CBS.

Rolli IQ AI sentiment summary for "kimmel"

Rolli IQ AI sentiment summary for "colbert"

First Amendment vs. TV Business

Turning to Rolli IQ's Topic Tree, we can see that some of the most trending topics addressing Kimmel's suspension were around freedom of speech and the public's perception of what went down. In both of these cases, both liberals and conservatives weighed in heavily.

While there was plenty of political engagement surrounding the Colbert cancellation, engagement on that topic went much deeper into the business of late night TV than the Kimmel engagement came close to touching. Common themes, as shown by the Rolli IQ Topic Tree excerpts below, addressed the viability of late night TV and the impact the cancellation would have on the rest of late night.

Very Different Emotions

We see those differences in opinion about the reason for each host's removal come together in an interesting way if we compare the Rolli IQ Emotion Map for each. Kimmel's map (below) shows nearly uniform anger over the decision, whether that be anger over the host's suspension or anger over what he said. 

Colbert's Rolli IQ Emotion Map (below), measured at a time before the public knew Kimmel was also going to be temporarily suspended, shows a broader mix of emotions. Forest green shows those happy about the decision, while pea green shows those disgusted and red shows those angry about the move. 

The bottom line is that the analysis using Rolli IQ to look at social media posts regarding the removal of Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert from the airwaves shows the latest war for late night centers around, not what these hosts bring to the world of entertainment, but what social media users see as the reasons for their being silenced.