America’s late-night TV hosts have rallied behind fellow comedian Jimmy Kimmel after he was suspended by ABC in a row over comments he made about the killing of Charlie Kirk.

Stephen Colbert began his show by saying “we are all Jimmy Kimmel”, and said the star’s removal was a “blatant assault on freedom of speech”.

Seth Meyers declared it was “a privilege and honour to call Jimmy Kimmel my friend”, while Jon Stewart and Jimmy Fallon tackled the free speech issue by doing satirical sketches in which they were apparently forced to praise Donald Trump.

Their broadcasts came shortly after the US president said the main networks were overwhelmingly negative about him and could have their licences “taken away”.