US comedian Jon Stewart has addressed head-on the spectre of censorship looming over the medium of late-night talk shows with an over-the-top portrayal of a politically obsequious television host under authoritarian rule.

Stewart hosted the Comedy Central programme on Thursday, one day after ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show indefinitely following comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and two months after CBS said it would cancel the show hosted by one of US President Donald Trump's fiercest critics on TV, Stephen Colbert.

The show opened with a voiceover promising adherence to the party line. "We have another fun, hilarious administration-compliant show," it said.

Stewart lavished praise on Trump and mocked his criticism of large cities and his deployment of the National Guard to fight their crime.

"Coming to you tonight from the real [expletive], the crime-ridden cesspool that is New York City. It is a tremendous disaster like no one's ever seen before. Someone's National Guard should invade this place, am I right?" he said.

"The Daily Show" set was refashioned with decorative gold engravings, in a parody of gold accents Trump has added to the fireplace, doorway arches, walls and other areas of the Oval Office.

Stewart fidgeted nervously as though he was worried about speaking the correct talking points. When the audience members reacted with an "awww" he whispered: "What are you doing? Shut up. You’re going to [expletive] blow this for us."

He took on a more stilted tone when he started describing Trump's visit to the United Kingdom, calling the president "our great father": "Gaze upon him. With a gate even more majestic than that of the royal horses that prance before him."

Kimmel made several remarks about the reaction to the Kirk's killing on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Monday and Tuesday nights, including that '“many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk."

ABC suspended Kimmel's show after a group of ABC-affiliated stations said it would not air the show, and Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr said his agency had a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and network parent Walt Disney accountable for spreading misinformation.

In July, CBS said it would cancel "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" in May 2026. The network said it shut down the decades-old TV institution for financial reasons. But the announcement came three days after Colbert criticised the settlement between Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a "60 Minutes" story.

Colbert's show posted a clip of his Thursday monologue on Instagram with the caption "The Late Show stands with Jimmy Kimmel and his staff".

The video showed Colbert responding to remarks Carr made that it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming "they determine falls short of community values.

"Well, you know what my community values are, buster? Freedom of speech," he said to loud applause.

David Letterman, Colbert's predecessor on "The Late Show", lamented the networks' moves.

"I feel bad about this, because we all see where see this is going, correct? It's managed media," Letterman said during an appearance Thursday at The Atlantic Festival 2025 in New York. "It's no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous."

He added that people shouldn't be fired just because they don't "suck up" to what Letterman called "an authoritarian" president. (AP)