Jimmy Kimmel ‘Felt Defeated’ by Stephen Colbert’s Cancellation and Says Late-Night TV Is Not ‘Dying of Natural Causes’: ‘We’re Being Poisoned’

Jimmy Kimmel has some thoughts on the purported death of late-night television.

The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host opened up in a new interview with Vulture about the future of the genre following the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” on CBS and his own run-ins with Trump, including his suspension following comments made about the death of Charlie Kirk.

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“I feel a little bit defeated about it,” Kimmel told Vulture after Colbert’s final episode aired on May 21. “In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m looking at my own future.”

CBS canceled “The Late Show” in July 2025 — a year before Colbert’s three-year deal was set to end — citing “purely financial reasons” despite much speculation that Colbert’s anti-Trump views had something to do with it, especially with the Paramount-Skydance merger in the background. Though it was reported that Colbert’s show was losing $40 million a year, Kimmel told Vulture he finds that hard to believe, pointing to a 2023 New York Times article that claims Colbert was offered a five-year contract but 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 said. “These are just made-up numbers.”

Kimmel said that ABC has told him “quite specifically” that his show is still profitable.

“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,” Kimmel asserted, adding: “We’re not just dying of natural causes. We’re being poisoned.”

However, Kimmel’s contract was extended in December by just one year instead of the standard three. “Everything is so tumultuous,” Kimmel told Vulture. “That seemed to make sense. It’s definitely not how it’s gone in the past.”

Asked if he has thought about retirement, Kimmel said he’s still unsure when his time will come. “It’s important to me to be responsible,” he 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.”

That is, if he isn’t ousted first. Trump has repeatedly called for Kimmel to be fired, most recently when he made a joke about Melania Trump having a “glow like an expectant widow.” In that case and that of Kirk, Kimmel said he “had the truth on my side as a defense. What if I actually do do something wrong? I mean, that’s inevitable.”

Of the president, Kimmel said: “I don’t love him. I don’t hate him, either. I feel sorry for him. He obviously didn’t get hugged a lot.”

Read Kimmel’s full Vulture profile here.

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