How Bill Maher Will Lower the Curtain

By Stephen M. Silverman

06/13/2002 at 01:00 PM EDT

Nine months after a post-Sept. 11 furor involving some explosive comments from its host, "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher" will wrap up its sometimes controversial five-year run on ABC with a whimper rather than a bang, reports Reuters. The late-night program's network said on Wednesday that it will broadcast the final original episode of "Incorrect" on Friday, June 28, then run repeats during the first week of July. The final episode will be taped June 27. For his swan song, Maher, 46, has invited four guests whom he considers "steadfast friends of the show": columnist Ann Coulter, actor-comedian Christopher "Kid" Reid, syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington and actress-singer Michelle Phillips, says Reuters. "It was important for him to have these four people on the show because he's really become friends of theirs," said an ABC spokeswoman, confirming that all of them have accepted Maher's invitation. The host has repeatedly said in interviews that his relationship with his bosses never recovered from the national outcry against him after his on-air remarks suggesting the United States was more "cowardly" than the suicide hijackers who crashed jetliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Those remarks, delivered on Maher's first broadcast after Sept. 11, prompted a public rebuke from the White House, a boycott by some advertisers (who, in some cases, never returned) and a cancellation of the show by a number of local affiliates. ABC announced the show's cancellation last month. It will be replaced Jan. 26, 2003, by a late-night show starring "The Man Show" comic Jimmy Kimmel. In the interim, an expanded "Nightline," hosted by Ted Koppel, will fill the "Incorrect" void.