Bill Maher Had Plenty to Say About Jimmy Kimmel on "Real Time"

"When Bill Maher walked onto the Real Time stage on Friday night, he opened things up with a recurring bit that cut deeper than it does most weeks. "I know why you're happy tonight - I'm still on," he said. It's been - understatement alert - a challenging week for talk show hosts, what with the indefinite hiatus of Jimmy Kimmel Live! earlier this week."

""It was 24 years to the day that I made comments on ABC that got me cancelled from that network," Maher said. Also notable: when Politically Incorrect went off the air, its timeslot would end up being occupied by none other than Jimmy Kimmel. Ultimately, Maher chose to take a somewhat optimistic view of the situation, saying of Kimmel, "If this firing goes for you the way it went for me, you'll get 23 years on a better network.""

"This also led to a more gallows humor-infused bit throughout the rest of the episode, in which Maher wondered whether Real Time would still be on the air by next week. "Ask the president to leave me on for one more week," Maher told his first guest. "I've got a funny bit next Friday." That first guest was border czar Tom Homan, who spoke of achieving "the most secure border in the history of the nation.""

Bill Maher opened Real Time with a recurring bit referencing Jimmy Kimmel's indefinite hiatus and joked about still being on the air. Maher recalled his own cancellation from Politically Incorrect after comments offended the presidential administration and noted it occurred 24 years earlier on the same date. Maher observed that Politically Incorrect's timeslot later hosted Jimmy Kimmel and quipped that a similar firing could lead to a long run on a better network. Maher used gallows humor about whether Real Time would survive another week and asked the president to keep him on. Maher interviewed border czar Tom Homan about border security and amnesty.

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