Jimmy Kimmel has been opening up about his thoughts on the future of late-night following the cancellation of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, which aired its last-ever episode on May 24.
In a new interview with Vulture, Kimmel admitted to feeling “defeated” after his friend and late-night peer aired his final episode. “I feel a little bit defeated about it,” he told the outlet. “In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m looking at my own future.”
Last July, CBS cited financial reasons for axing The Late Show, claiming the show loses $40 million annually. At the time, some critics argued the axing was politically motivated, with parent company Paramount hoping to appease President Donald Trump amid its merger with Skydance, which required government approval.
Kimmel cast doubt on those claims, noting a 2023 New York Times article that said CBS offered Colbert a five-year contract, but the comedian decided to go with three. “Am I to believe that over the course of those two years, they suddenly started losing $40 million a year?” he asked. “These are just made-up numbers.”
The ABC host also spoke against the claims that late-night is dying. “There are far more people watching late-night TV than there ever were, if you look at the number of views me and my colleagues get online every day and add in our linear-television ratings,” he stated. “We’re not just dying of natural causes. We’re being poisoned.”
Kimmel also said that ABC told him “quite specifically” that his show is profitable, even if “it’s not like when Johnny Carson or even Jay Leno were raking in the dollars.”
Disney extended Kimmel’s contract for another year back in December, rather than the more typical three-year renewal. Kimmel, who was temporarily suspended last September after comments he made about the fallout to the Charlie Kirk assassination, added, “Everything is so tumultuous.”
“That seemed to make sense. It’s definitely not how it’s gone in the past,” he noted, pointing out that his current contract expires in May 2027. As for whether he’ll step away from late-night, Kimmel said, “It’s important to me to be responsible. I know I could go out in a blaze of glory and get a lot of applause for it, but it would be a very selfish thing to do.”
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Weeknights, 11:35/10:35c, ABC
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Originally published on tvinsider.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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