Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

Jesters once had considerably more leeway than the average person to make fun of the king. If otherwise loyal subjects made light of their leader, they could lose their head. Jesters, however, could test the limits of the possible with relative impunity—until they crossed the line and lost their heads as well.

Donald Trump hasn’t revived the guillotine—not yet. So, modern jesters Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert don’t have to worry about decapitation. But ABC and CBS, fearful of falling afoul of the Trump administration, metaphorically cut off the heads of their late night hosts by cancelling their shows.

After CBS announced that it was axing The Late Show for “financial reasons,” Colbert’s show goes off the air next May. The franchise, which began with David Letterman in 1993, has indeed been losing money, not because of a dearth of viewers but a decline in advertisers. But Trump watchers suspect that the real reason is that Paramount, the parent company of CBS, needed government approval for its sale to Skydance. Shortly after the announcement of Colbert’s cancellation, the FCC approved the sale.

Jimmy Kimmel’s (temporary) cancellation was more explicitly political. After the comedian made a joke about the “MAGA gang” politicizing the killing of Charlie Kirk, Trump’s FCC threatened to discipline Kimmel if ABC didn’t act. So, ABC removed Kimmel from the air. This is the same ABC that paid $15 million to settle Trump’s defamation suit against George Stephanopoulos, money that will go toward the construction of Trump’s presidential bookshelf (sorry, library).

This week, ABC reversed itself, likely because of so many negative reactions, and Kimmel will return to the air. But Sinclair and Nexstar, two TV companies, won’t air his show on their local affiliates, reducing his audience by nearly a quarter.

Trump, as he tends to do, has doubled down by calling for NBC to cancel Seth Myers and Jimmy Fallon. He has also remarked that any TV station that criticizes him risks losing their operating license. Comedy Central, which employs Jon Stewart at The Daily Show, is also owned by Paramount but presumably he’s safe since the Skydance deal already went through. John Oliver has also been a scathing critic of Trump, but he operates from the relative safety of HBO, which doesn’t need an FCC license. But HBO is owned by Warner Brothers, and Paramount wants to gobble them up too. Arbitrary corporate decisions threaten comics just as much as vindictive presidential decisions.

Actually, no one is safe because, as Trump said at Kirk’s funeral, he’s not in........

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