Late-Night Hosts Bask In Fox News-Dominion Settlement But Regret Loss Of TV Spectacle: “I Wanted To See Rupert Murdoch Put His Hand On The Bible And Burst Into Flames”

Erik Pedersen
Updated ·3 min read
11
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Let the gloating begin.

TV’s late-night comedy crowd is reveling in the luscious goodness that was dropped in their collective lap today after Fox News said it will pay $787.5 million to settle the defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over the cable net’s false election-rigging claims. Here’s some of what we’ve heard so far.

More from Deadline

Jimmy Kimmel played Captain Obvious in saying, “No company in America had a worse day than Fox News today,” then zinged ’em with: “It’s gonna take a lot of reverse-mortgage ads to pay that one off.” After another jab or three, the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host then loosed his vitriol on the plaintiff.

RELATED: Fox News Settlement With Dominion Does Not Require On-Air Retraction Or Apology

“I also wanna say ‘nice going’ to Dominion,” he said. “We naively thought this was about making Fox News take responsibility for destroying their reputation because that’s what they told us it was about. But no, they took the money instead — which means the liars who knowingly misled their oatmeal-brained viewers and seriously damaged our democracy don’t have to say anything about it at all … while Dominion and their lawyers go shopping for yachts, I guess.” Here’s part of Kimmel’s ABC monologue:

RELATED: Dominion CEO Defends Fox News Settlement Decision, Says “All Of The Facts We Had Discovered During The Case Had Already Come To Light”

Over on Comedy Central, correspondent and guest host Jordan Klepper “lamented” that Fox News soon will be nine digits poorer. “That is a ton of money, and Fox was already strapped for cash: Tucker Carlson can only afford one facial expression.”

RELATED: Dominion CEO Defends Fox News Settlement Decision, Says “All Of The Facts We Had Discovered During The Case Had Already Come To Light”

Klepper then said: “I’m glad there’s some accountability here,” but still pretty disappointed we’re not going to get a trial because all the Fox anchors would have been forced to testify. It would have been like the Seinfeld finale, but instead of Soup Nazis, it’s just …” — and he let the crowd finish that joke for him.”

He went on to rattle off some cost-cutting measures that Fox News will need to implement, such as firing Brian Kilmeade’s reading tutor, seeing Jeanine Pirro having to “switch to the cheap box of wine” and “of course, they’re gonna have to put down Sean Hannity.” Here’s some of Klepper’s monologue:

Over on CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the host aired out his frustration that the case was not going to trial and therefore not getting “six weeks of delicious content.”

“I wanted to see Rupert Murdoch put his hand on the Bible and burst into flames,” Stephen Colbert added.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.