Late-night comedy hosts on Thursday steered clear of the newly revealed bombshell allegations that Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed several women over decades.
The New York Times report, which claimed that Weinstein has been accused of sexual harassing at least eight women, including actresses Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan, over the span of nearly 30 years, broke at around 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, only a few hours before late-night shows typically tape. But those same shows regularly provide same-day jokes on news regarding President Donald Trump that has broken well after then, the Daily Beast reported.
Late-night comedians Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, James Corden, and Stephen Colbert all avoided any mention of the allegations against Weinstein, both in their monologues and interviews with movie-star guests. The Daily Beast noted that Corden and Fallon have appeared in Weinstein films.
The only late-night comedian to make a joke about Weinstein was "The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah, who briefly mentioned the Hollywood producer in passing.
"Look, Harvey Weinstein!" Noah said in response to a clip of Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton dismissing a female reporter for asking a legitimate sports question.
The late-night hosts' apparent efforts to ignore the Weinstein news contrasts with their responses to similar sexual harassment allegations against more conservative media figures, the Daily Beast noted. Weinstein has donated nearly $600,000 to Democratic politicians, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, since the early 2000s.
"Experts say it's unlikely that any self-respecting network will ever hire him," Fallon said of the sexual harassment allegations against former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly earlier this year.
"I mean, it is nice to know that while liberals and conservatives disagree on a lot of things, the one thing they can see eye-to-eye on is that this guy is unf*ckable," Noah said of the sexual harassment allegations against the late Fox News chief Roger Ailes last year.
"The pervert on the bus," Myers said of Trump following the release of the latter's notorious "Hollywood Access" tape last year.
Kimmel's silence on the Weinstein allegations followed his recent efforts to insert himself into culturally charged current events. Recently, Kimmel said "those nuts" who oppose gun control "know they bear some responsibility" for events like the mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Kimmel has also said that removing racist monuments around the country would include taking down every building with Trump's name on it. He recently used his celebrity status to campaign to save Obamacare from Republican efforts to repeal it.