At the Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026, Jimmy Kimmel made the 98th Academy Awards fun by giving the Best Documentary Short Film award and making a joke that compared CBS to North Korea over free speech issues. “Some countries don’t support free speech, as you know. I can’t say which one. “Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS,” he said, and the crowd cheered loudly. The comment was about CBS not letting Stephen Colbert’s guest James Talarico on the show because of threats from Trump supporters like Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel Targets Trump and Melania Kimmel didn’t stop there; he also went after President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s documentary “Melania” before the Best Documentary Feature award. He joked, “Oh man, is he going to be mad his wife wasn’t nominated for this?” This was a jab at how poorly the movie did at the box office. This appearance by the late-night host, who has made fun of Trump in the past, like at the 2024 Oscars, made him even more of a political satire star.
The CBS dig comes from recent tensions when the network stopped Colbert from interviewing Texas politician James Talarico because conservatives said it could break FCC rules. Kimmel, whose own ABC show was briefly taken off the air, used the Oscars, which Conan O’Brien hosted, to promote bold storytelling in documentaries. The moment went viral, which led to more talks about Trump’s administration’s censorship of the media.
