September 20, 2025 • 9 mins
Celebrities and former politicians have weighed in on the decision to axe Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show.
The US talk show host has been pulled off air indefinitely, after suggesting Charlie Kirk was killed by a pro-Trump Republican last week.
Flicks.co.nz editor Steve Newall unpacked the responses - and weighed in on the debate over this situation.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB picking.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Off with a little bit of our entertainment segment with
a little bit of Chapel Roan. The Pops superstar has
been announced as the headline act for next year's Laneway
Festival on Auckland. It's going to take place on Thursday,
February fifth at Western Springs. Her music's really exploded over
the last couple of years. She won, of course Best
New Artist at this year's Grammys. Last year Charlie xx
(00:37):
Highlight was the headliner at the festival, and I think
they've done a pretty good job with lining up another
impressive headliner. So if you're a Chapel Roon fan, that's
where you will need to be right joining me now,
Steve Nell, editor at flicks dot Co do on Z,
good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Good morning, and first of all, it's a cracker Laneway lineup,
really really good bill together, undoubtedly really strong headliner and
Chapel Rohan. But while these artists might not be immediately
relevant to some of us older listeners, it's a really
strong sort of second tea. Part of the spill with
Wet Leg.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I love it. It's embarrassingly I only know wet Leg
because I saw them at Harry Stars when I went
with my daughter.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
And isn't that the whole point of a support slot?
That's great? Hey, it would be great if New Zealand
artists had the support slot for all international shows the way,
I would exactly the same effect in me way.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Okay, moving on, I like that nice little dig in there, Steve.
Let's talk about Jimmy Kimmel because a lot of his
colleagues other late night TV hosts have been speaking out
about the situation he finds himself in. Have We Got Felon? Yeah,
listen to this.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Well, guys, the big story is that Jimmy Kimmel was
suspended by ABC after pressure from the FCC, leaving everyone
thinking WTF. But to be honest with you, I don't
know what's going on and no one does. But I
do know Jimmy Kimmel and he's a decent, funny and
loving guy and I hope he comes back.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
That was Jimmy Fallon there? Do you have to be?
Everyone's called Jimmy? What did you think about what he
had to say?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
It's interesting from Fallon, I personally have a strong agreement
with the sentiments. But Fallon sort of has played an
interesting role with his late his own Late night show
and the rise of Donald Trump. So back in twenty sixteen,
there was an interview on The Tonight Show where it
was well and we were infamously like rustled his hair, like
messed with Trump's hair and in the Waker that he
fell coming for a lot of controversy criticism for normalizing
(02:33):
the candidate then and has said that subsequently, I made
a mistake. I'm sorry if I made anyone mad, and
looking back, I would do it differently, like basically not
holding into any account like continuing the sort of cartoonish
portrayal of Trump. Trump is a celebrity rather than Trump
is a political candidate deserving of critique on that level.
(02:54):
But there's a very interesting relationship between Trump and late
night TV, right, Like you sort of think about the
era that he came up in the eighties New York
late night TV was an agenda setting part of the
media landscape. So much now right it is like a
kind of declining media and this is a sun setting
part of the industry. So it's no surprise I think
he has made himself a fantastic target and fought of
(03:15):
for lots of jokes in that environment. But it doesn't
surprise me that he has a long list of grievances
with these hosts. And some people have pointed to Felon's
a joke at the Oscars asking sort of querying whether
the president's watching or maybe it might have been former
prison at that stage and noting is he still watching?
Maybe it's past his jail time. So that's kind of
(03:36):
the sort of the battle that's been going. It doesn't
surprise me that this war has been brewing. However, very
very fast decision to suspend fallon, Sorry Kimmel, the Jimmy's.
I would note though, that everyone is acting like the
show has been canceled and discussions are continuing about how
to bring the show back on air.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Do you think it will be better? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
So this is why, like Kim has been very quiet.
Apparently he's been guided by a lot of concern for
his staff and the livelihoods of his crew have already
suffered tremendously through the pandemic with their livelihood, so he's
really looking out for his team. But it would seem
that he's been asked to apologize, and like the day
that his show was yanked, he was going to clarify
(04:19):
for the Discuss's remarks, but wasn't up for an apology.
So there's discussions are happening in the background, his crew
continuing to be paid, and in the meantime, Yeah, people
are interesting coalition of people who joined the criticism, from
Ted Cruz and Carl Rove through to Pedro Pascal and
the Writers Guild of America. We're picketing, doesn't he And
among those signs, we saw a lot of signs sort
(04:41):
of referencing and Or their own show about the rise
of fascism. And interestingly and Or writer Dan Gilroy, who
won an Emmy for an episode which has a very
protracted speech decrying the rise of fascism, and he himself
has commented saying, our industry faces the most sophisticated, venomous,
creeping evil in America's history. There's no standing above this conflict,
(05:04):
no impartial observers. If you're on the sidelines, you've made
a choice and must live with it. So the rhetoric's high.
I don't know how Disney is going to resolve this.
From a corporate point of view, because they're about to
annoy a whole lot of people whichever way this goes. Interestingly,
yesterday I noticed Facebook, I've been served a Disney Plus
ad and the comments hadn't been switched off on the
(05:26):
Disney Plus ad, and there were hundreds and hundreds of
comments referencing canceling subscriptions, referencing bringback Kimmel. There was no
one sticking up for the decision. So for this part
of the world, I imagine the people sitting in the
New Zealand Australian officers of entertainment companies probably find their
jobs get a lot more difficult because of a convenient,
(05:47):
knee jerk business decision in the US.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Right, if you'd like a distraction from the real world,
there is one available for you at the Show Me
Shorts Film Festival, which is New Zealand's leading international short
film festival. And I love this festival. There is always
just it's a treasure trove of just creativity and amazing
short films and stories and things. I tend to think
it can be harder to tell a story succincly in
(06:13):
ten minutes and it is an hour and a half,
and so you know, there is a lot of craft
on show with these short films.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Big time, and a full disclosure, I'm a board member
of show Me Shorts, but as recently as last year,
show Me Shorts was turning twenty this year, so I've
had plenty of time to be an impartial observer and
enjoy what they do. The festival's done a fantastic job
of betting in the idea of going out to watch
short films in a movie theater, and it's a great
environment to actually give them the full focus they deserve.
(06:41):
At the same time, over this twenty years, like as
everyone knows, like the rise of short form contents actually
really helped this, Like it's really normalized watching these shorter
stories and the things you can do within that Timelineit
like it doesn't have to be a complete narrative arc
of a feature. There are some documentary shorts, so maybe
you're not going to completely escape the real world. But
as part of this year's celebration of Turning twenty, there's
(07:02):
also a retrospective element to this festival as well, some
of the films from those past two decades coming to screens.
Runs from October seven to twenty seven. There's one hundred
and twenty seven screenings around the country and eighty three
short films in the program. You can head to show
Me Short's website to find out more and we'll see
at some cinemas. The opening night party at the Civic
is going to be a biggie.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah, looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
And we should explain to people what they do is
they curate them really well, so when you go to
a session you might see four or five or six.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
That's a true One's should have mentioned. Yes, you're not
buying a ticket to watch us a seven minute animation.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It's good.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
It's a really curated mix of stuff. And I think,
like like anytime you've gone down a good YouTube rabbit hole,
like one that's for entertainment's sake as opposed to current events,
what's coming next is always going to be interesting, even
if like for that five minutes, it's not always your company.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
They'll always be quite different and they'll be Yeah, they
gravey for different reasons. Show Me Shorts dot co dot
n z is where you can find that program. Thank
you so much, Steve oh and Robert Redford passed away
this week. I found quite sad about that.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Indeed, There's my favorite Redford anecdote that came this week
was that I don't know who started this, but this
is his friendship with Paul Newman, that one of them
gifted each other. I think it was Redford giving Paul
Newman a really crappy car, then just delivered it to
his house. And then a while later a crate got
delivered back to Redford's house and it was just molten metal.
And then Redford made that into that made into a
(08:27):
sculpture and dropped into Paul Newman's yard and the two
never talked about it.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I love it and look I went to flex doot
cot Odionz to have a look and to see if
I could find some Robert Redford films that were available.
You can pretty much rent or by whatever film you'd
like to see. But I did find a few that
you could get you could watch for free if you've
got a Netflix subscription or Disney. There are a few
on there that are available for you, including Butch Cassidy
(08:52):
and The Sundance Kid.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
And I'll also pipe up and say that a few're
Auckland based. The Hollywood Evandale are having some retrospective screenings
to celebrate, Celebrate Redford. I'm just grabbing that for now,
but that will be a really great opportunity to see
some of these films that otherwise you wouldn't really get
a chance to see them on the big screen, right,
so you wouldn't. They are screening, so just go to
(09:15):
the Hollywood. Yeah, they're playing the way we were the playing,
Butch Cassidy, they're playing the Hot Rock. So it's a
nice selection of some of his greatest films. And that's
October fourth, fifth, and ninth. Nice.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Thank you so much, Steve.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB picking.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Off with a little bit of our entertainment segment with
a little bit of Chapel Roan. The Pops superstar has
been announced as the headline act for next year's Laneway
Festival on Auckland. It's going to take place on Thursday,
February fifth at Western Springs. Her music's really exploded over
the last couple of years. She won, of course Best
New Artist at this year's Grammys. Last year Charlie xx
(00:37):
Highlight was the headliner at the festival, and I think
they've done a pretty good job with lining up another
impressive headliner. So if you're a Chapel Roon fan, that's
where you will need to be right joining me now,
Steve Nell, editor at flicks dot Co do on Z,
good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Good morning, and first of all, it's a cracker Laneway lineup,
really really good bill together, undoubtedly really strong headliner and
Chapel Rohan. But while these artists might not be immediately
relevant to some of us older listeners, it's a really
strong sort of second tea. Part of the spill with
Wet Leg.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I love it. It's embarrassingly I only know wet Leg
because I saw them at Harry Stars when I went
with my daughter.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
And isn't that the whole point of a support slot?
That's great? Hey, it would be great if New Zealand
artists had the support slot for all international shows the way,
I would exactly the same effect in me way.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Okay, moving on, I like that nice little dig in there, Steve.
Let's talk about Jimmy Kimmel because a lot of his
colleagues other late night TV hosts have been speaking out
about the situation he finds himself in. Have We Got Felon? Yeah,
listen to this.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Well, guys, the big story is that Jimmy Kimmel was
suspended by ABC after pressure from the FCC, leaving everyone
thinking WTF. But to be honest with you, I don't
know what's going on and no one does. But I
do know Jimmy Kimmel and he's a decent, funny and
loving guy and I hope he comes back.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
That was Jimmy Fallon there? Do you have to be?
Everyone's called Jimmy? What did you think about what he
had to say?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
It's interesting from Fallon, I personally have a strong agreement
with the sentiments. But Fallon sort of has played an
interesting role with his late his own Late night show
and the rise of Donald Trump. So back in twenty sixteen,
there was an interview on The Tonight Show where it
was well and we were infamously like rustled his hair, like
messed with Trump's hair and in the Waker that he
fell coming for a lot of controversy criticism for normalizing
(02:33):
the candidate then and has said that subsequently, I made
a mistake. I'm sorry if I made anyone mad, and
looking back, I would do it differently, like basically not
holding into any account like continuing the sort of cartoonish
portrayal of Trump. Trump is a celebrity rather than Trump
is a political candidate deserving of critique on that level.
(02:54):
But there's a very interesting relationship between Trump and late
night TV, right, Like you sort of think about the
era that he came up in the eighties New York
late night TV was an agenda setting part of the
media landscape. So much now right it is like a
kind of declining media and this is a sun setting
part of the industry. So it's no surprise I think
he has made himself a fantastic target and fought of
(03:15):
for lots of jokes in that environment. But it doesn't
surprise me that he has a long list of grievances
with these hosts. And some people have pointed to Felon's
a joke at the Oscars asking sort of querying whether
the president's watching or maybe it might have been former
prison at that stage and noting is he still watching?
Maybe it's past his jail time. So that's kind of
(03:36):
the sort of the battle that's been going. It doesn't
surprise me that this war has been brewing. However, very
very fast decision to suspend fallon, Sorry Kimmel, the Jimmy's.
I would note though, that everyone is acting like the
show has been canceled and discussions are continuing about how
to bring the show back on air.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Do you think it will be better? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
So this is why, like Kim has been very quiet.
Apparently he's been guided by a lot of concern for
his staff and the livelihoods of his crew have already
suffered tremendously through the pandemic with their livelihood, so he's
really looking out for his team. But it would seem
that he's been asked to apologize, and like the day
that his show was yanked, he was going to clarify
(04:19):
for the Discuss's remarks, but wasn't up for an apology.
So there's discussions are happening in the background, his crew
continuing to be paid, and in the meantime, Yeah, people
are interesting coalition of people who joined the criticism, from
Ted Cruz and Carl Rove through to Pedro Pascal and
the Writers Guild of America. We're picketing, doesn't he And
among those signs, we saw a lot of signs sort
(04:41):
of referencing and Or their own show about the rise
of fascism. And interestingly and Or writer Dan Gilroy, who
won an Emmy for an episode which has a very
protracted speech decrying the rise of fascism, and he himself
has commented saying, our industry faces the most sophisticated, venomous,
creeping evil in America's history. There's no standing above this conflict,
(05:04):
no impartial observers. If you're on the sidelines, you've made
a choice and must live with it. So the rhetoric's high.
I don't know how Disney is going to resolve this.
From a corporate point of view, because they're about to
annoy a whole lot of people whichever way this goes. Interestingly,
yesterday I noticed Facebook, I've been served a Disney Plus
ad and the comments hadn't been switched off on the
(05:26):
Disney Plus ad, and there were hundreds and hundreds of
comments referencing canceling subscriptions, referencing bringback Kimmel. There was no
one sticking up for the decision. So for this part
of the world, I imagine the people sitting in the
New Zealand Australian officers of entertainment companies probably find their
jobs get a lot more difficult because of a convenient,
(05:47):
knee jerk business decision in the US.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Right, if you'd like a distraction from the real world,
there is one available for you at the Show Me
Shorts Film Festival, which is New Zealand's leading international short
film festival. And I love this festival. There is always
just it's a treasure trove of just creativity and amazing
short films and stories and things. I tend to think
it can be harder to tell a story succincly in
(06:13):
ten minutes and it is an hour and a half,
and so you know, there is a lot of craft
on show with these short films.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Big time, and a full disclosure, I'm a board member
of show Me Shorts, but as recently as last year,
show Me Shorts was turning twenty this year, so I've
had plenty of time to be an impartial observer and
enjoy what they do. The festival's done a fantastic job
of betting in the idea of going out to watch
short films in a movie theater, and it's a great
environment to actually give them the full focus they deserve.
(06:41):
At the same time, over this twenty years, like as
everyone knows, like the rise of short form contents actually
really helped this, Like it's really normalized watching these shorter
stories and the things you can do within that Timelineit
like it doesn't have to be a complete narrative arc
of a feature. There are some documentary shorts, so maybe
you're not going to completely escape the real world. But
as part of this year's celebration of Turning twenty, there's
(07:02):
also a retrospective element to this festival as well, some
of the films from those past two decades coming to screens.
Runs from October seven to twenty seven. There's one hundred
and twenty seven screenings around the country and eighty three
short films in the program. You can head to show
Me Short's website to find out more and we'll see
at some cinemas. The opening night party at the Civic
is going to be a biggie.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah, looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
And we should explain to people what they do is
they curate them really well, so when you go to
a session you might see four or five or six.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
That's a true One's should have mentioned. Yes, you're not
buying a ticket to watch us a seven minute animation.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It's good.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
It's a really curated mix of stuff. And I think,
like like anytime you've gone down a good YouTube rabbit hole,
like one that's for entertainment's sake as opposed to current events,
what's coming next is always going to be interesting, even
if like for that five minutes, it's not always your company.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
They'll always be quite different and they'll be Yeah, they
gravey for different reasons. Show Me Shorts dot co dot
n z is where you can find that program. Thank
you so much, Steve oh and Robert Redford passed away
this week. I found quite sad about that.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Indeed, There's my favorite Redford anecdote that came this week
was that I don't know who started this, but this
is his friendship with Paul Newman, that one of them
gifted each other. I think it was Redford giving Paul
Newman a really crappy car, then just delivered it to
his house. And then a while later a crate got
delivered back to Redford's house and it was just molten metal.
And then Redford made that into that made into a
(08:27):
sculpture and dropped into Paul Newman's yard and the two
never talked about it.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I love it and look I went to flex doot
cot Odionz to have a look and to see if
I could find some Robert Redford films that were available.
You can pretty much rent or by whatever film you'd
like to see. But I did find a few that
you could get you could watch for free if you've
got a Netflix subscription or Disney. There are a few
on there that are available for you, including Butch Cassidy
(08:52):
and The Sundance Kid.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
And I'll also pipe up and say that a few're
Auckland based. The Hollywood Evandale are having some retrospective screenings
to celebrate, Celebrate Redford. I'm just grabbing that for now,
but that will be a really great opportunity to see
some of these films that otherwise you wouldn't really get
a chance to see them on the big screen, right,
so you wouldn't. They are screening, so just go to
(09:15):
the Hollywood. Yeah, they're playing the way we were the playing,
Butch Cassidy, they're playing the Hot Rock. So it's a
nice selection of some of his greatest films. And that's
October fourth, fifth, and ninth. Nice.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Thank you so much, Steve.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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