Comedian Pete Dominick clashed furiously with CNN's Boris Sanchez on Thursday, disputing the narrative that late-night talk shows like the now-suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live are losing relevance because of their liberal politics.

Kimmel's show, which recently criticized Trump and his followers for politically exploiting the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, is on hold indefinitely after ABC's parent company Disney faced pressure both President Donald Trump's FCC and two of ABC's biggest affiliate station owners — the far-right Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Nexstar, which is seeking merger approval from the Trump administration.

"We need to protect the First Amendment," said Dominick, who has worked closely with Stephen Colbert, another late-night comedian who was canceled around the same time Trump publicly attacked him. "And this is the most important point. It's a crucible point. It's an inflection point. We all need to stand up."

"Beyond your call to answer the political moment, I wonder what you make of the argument that some of what is presented on late-night TV, not just on Kimmel's show, but on other shows, is out of touch with Middle America and doesn't reflect their views and that some folks were actually offended by what Kimmel was saying," said Sanchez.

"No. Nonsense," said Dominick. "I don't know what you think Middle America is. Could you expand on what Middle America is? Who is that?"

"Folks that were not pleased with what Kimmel was saying?" said Sanchez. "I mean, there's a big part of the population that doesn't agree with his politics. The administration has pointed to that as part of the reason why people have tuned away from outlets like Jimmy Kimmel Live and have tuned into other outlets that more closely reflect their views. You've seen the ratings when it comes to other networks, more conservative networks. On late night, they're going up."

"First of all, you're talking — you're talking about Fox News, Greg Gutfeld show. It's on at 10," said Dominick. "You're talking not about the political moment. This is just media. There's a billion channels. The reason why fewer people are watching late-night is because you can watch TikTok all day, that's why. It has nothing to do with that, they're not, they're not meeting what people want or they're not appeasing Middle America. Please save that."

"You're talking about MAGA," he added. "You're talking about overwhelmingly white people in America that vote for Donald Trump. The vast majority of young people, the vast majority of people of color, the vast majority of Americans love Stephen Colbert, they love Jon Stewart, they love Jimmy Kimmel. And they're going to continue loving comedians and others who speak out. They — all these guys are making have millions and millions of viewers way more than these other outlets that you're necessarily mentioning. So I don't buy any of that nonsense, and I don't think it's true. I don't think it's [borne] out by the facts either."

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