Following the end of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” the future of late-night television looks even bleaker with one less host on the air. And few have been more outspoken about the genre’s tumultuous state lately than Jimmy Kimmel.
The long-running late-night host didn’t mince words last month when he went after CBS for “pushing” Colbert and his team out the door, as “The Late Show” aired its final episode. In light of that, Kimmel reflected on what his own exit from late-night might look like in the future in a recent interview with Vulture.
“I feel a little bit defeated by it,” Kimmel told the outlet of Colbert’s farewell show last month. “In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m looking at my own future.”
Oddly enough, that almost was Kimmel’s reality after ABC suspended his show in September following the host’s comments on President Donald Trump’s reaction to Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The network brought his show back less than a week later, but that hasn’t stopped further threats from Trump or quelled talk that the late-night landscape is still collapsing.
But if the numbers are anything to go by, Kimmel believes that late-night is thriving.
“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 told Vulture, adding that it’s “silly” to say the genre has become less relevant today.
“We’re not just dying of natural causes. We’re being poisoned,” Kimmel added, pointing out that CBS reportedly encouraged Colbert to sign a five-year contract in 2023 (he ended up signing a three-year deal) — just two years before pulling the plug on “The Late Show,” claiming it was a “financial decision” driven by the program losing significant amounts of money (reportedly $40 million a year).
Kimmel’s own contract with ABC is apparently up in the air, as it expires in May 2027. It’s unclear whether he will negotiate a new one or announce his retirement, but he said he has given plenty of thought to what the end of his tenure might look like.
“It’s important to me to be responsible,” Kimmel said. “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.”
He added, “Professionally, I have no idea what I’m going to do after this. Freedom is what I want more than anything. I want to be able to go fishing because the fishing’s good.”
For now, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” continues to air weeknights on ABC at 11:35 p.m. ET. Kimmel’s upcoming guests this week include Kevin Hart, Draymond Green and Johnny Knoxville.
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