John Oliver calls for viewers to cancel Disney+, Hulu over Kimmel suspension

"Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver urged his viewers on Sunday night to cancel any subscriptions to Disney+ after ABC pulled comedian Jimmy Kimmel off the air last week over his comments about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

"Disney needs to stand by Kimmel and his staff," Oliver said on his weekly talk show in its first episode back after winning its latest Emmy. "And there are ways you can encourage them to do that, you can apply pressure to them by canceling Disney+ or Hulu."

Google searches on how to cancel Disney's streaming platforms have seen sharp increases since Kimmel's suspension, Oliver noted.

"It really shouldn't take the threat of lost revenue to bring Disney to its senses here," Oliver said, appealing directly to Disney CEO Bob Iger, whom he called a "coward" who "knew better" than to take Kimmel off the air for criticizing the Trump administration.

"Giving the bully your lunch money dosent make him go away, it just makes him come back hungrier each time," the host added.

Kimmel was suspended last week for suggesting conservatives were trying to score "political points" off Kirk's assassination, remarks that sparked a sharp rebuke from President Trump's FCC chair and accusations of censorship from Democrats and First Amendment advocates.

"Kimmel is by no means the first casualty in Trump's attacks on free speech," Oliver said. "He's just the latest canary in the coal mine — a mine that, at this point, now seems more dead canary than coal."