Jimmy Kimmel Slams This ‘Beyond Nonsensical’ Explanation For ‘Late Show’ Cancellation

Jimmy Kimmel ripped reports that the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was annually losing tens of millions of dollars, weeks after CBS claimed it was “purely a financial decision” to cancel its decades-old late-night franchise.

“These alleged insiders who supposedly analyze the budgets of the shows — I don’t know who they are, but I do know they don’t know what they’re talking about,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel — a late-night fixture since 2003 — explained that the analysis seemed to only focus on advertising revenue and not affiliate fees (the money that TV providers pay to networks to carry their channels), which can amount to “hundreds of millions” and possibly “billions” of dollars.

“And you must allocate a certain percentage of those fees to late-night shows,” he added.

“It really is surprising how little the media seems to know about how the media works. There’s just not a snowball’s chance in hell that that’s anywhere near accurate.”

He continued to question the reported financial woes of the “Late Show.”

“I will tell you, the first 10 years I did the show, they claimed we weren’t making any money — and we had five times as many viewers on ABC as we do now,” he said.

“Who knows what’s true? All I know is they keep paying us — and that’s kind of all you need to know.”

Kimmel — when later asked about the narrative that late-night TV is “dead” — argued that even if it’s a “declining” format, more people are watching such programs than ever before, pointing to the millions of views that his colleagues see on YouTube and streaming platforms.

“So the idea that late-night is dead is simply untrue,” he stressed.

His comments arrive about a month following CBS’s shock announcement, which sparked speculation that the program was axed for political reasons.

At the time, CBS parent company Paramount Global, which had already paid Donald Trump $16 million over his “60 Minutes” lawsuit, was seeking the approval of a Trump-favoring Federal Communications Commission chair to complete a multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance Media.

The president has taken a number of victory laps since the cancellation news, warning that “no talent” Kimmel as well as “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon were going to be “next.”