Kimmel and Colbert join forces

This week, the two comedians who have been victimized by Donald Trump exchanged interviews. Jimmy Kimmel visited Colbert at the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway, and Stephen Colbert visited Kimmel, who was doing the show from Brooklyn, specifically to conduct this experiment. Obviously, both interviews were recorded, because both late nights They are broadcast simultaneously at 11:30 p.m. Viewers therefore found themselves in a kind of mirror game between CBS and ABC. Late show with Stephen Colbert had Kimmel sitting in the guest chair, and the Jimmy Kimmel Live! had Colbert sitting in his. The two kings of the night acted as hosts and guests at the same time. Kimmel even pretended to be connected to the other network and greeted themselves from the other end. As is customary in the guild of the big stars, Kimmel and Colbert praised each other exaggeratedly, exhibited their friendship, and thanked each other for their displays of solidarity. The spectacle of the canonization of television egos.

The two interviews focused, above all, on explaining what they had been like in recent weeks, with the news of their respective cancellations. Colbert still has several months of throat until May, and Kimmel has finally been pardoned. Both wanted to know the details of how they had been informed of the firing, the mix of emotions, how they had told their teams, and how they had dealt with it.

The metatelevisual experiment is a way of taking the codes of the genre to the extreme. late night, historically, has always played with self-reference, with hosts mocking their own dynamics and the format parodying itself. However, in this case, the exercise goes beyond play to acquire a certain political intent. The two voices of criticism of Trump joined forces and, in a polarized country, put aside competition to demonstrate complicity. A symbolic alliance that has media repercussions and allows for the denouncement of television censorship and the deterioration of democratic values that the United States is suffering. late nights, which compared to the 1990s have lost much of their strength in terms of viewership figures, have been forced to abandon their role as pure entertainment to take on a more belligerent and committed role. Therefore, showing this unity is relevant. The idea also entertains regular viewers, who have been amusingly informed about the political and media sewers. They have also seen a more human side of the hosts. On the other hand, it is still a magnificent marketing ploy to attract new viewers curious about the political turmoil. Despite all the tragedy of the deterioration of freedom of expression, Colbert and Kimmel are making the most of the pressures and their failure. late nights And comedians have become a bastion of resistance and have understood that this is a shared struggle.