Jimmy Kimmel Live Randy Holmes/Disney/Getty Images Jimmy Kimmel Live! ain’t dead yet.
On Tuesday, Page Six reported Jimmy Kimmel’s long-running ABC late night talk show would end in 2027.
“His contract is not getting extended,” the publication cited “a source familiar with the situation” as having stated. ABC pretty immediately denied that was the case, however.
“The information is inaccurate — any reports about the future of the show at this point are purely speculative,” an ABC Entertainment spokesperson told Page Six (and The Hollywood Reporter).
Separately, a source close to Kimmel also denied to THR there was any truth to the report.
Well, OK, so there is some truth to what Page Six published. For starters, Kimmel’s contract is up next May — but we already knew that. (That’s how one-year deals work.) And, sure, there’s a good chance the deal does not get re-upped, especially in its current form. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is an expensive proposition. The format and required staffing is expensive, and its host is expensive. Should profit margins even still exist in late night, they have slimmed down more in the past 23 years than Kimmel himself.
You don’t have to go too far for an example — just flip a few channels. In May, CBS signed off The Late Show after 33 years, citing money troubles.
“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” Paramount co-CEO and CBS president and CEO George Cheeks, CBS Entertainment head Amy Reisenbach and CBS Studios president David Stapf said at the time. “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
At the time Stephen Colbert was removed from the airwaves, he still had the most-watched late night talk show. (Per Nielsen: 2.88 million total viewers per night, on average, for the 2025-26 TV season; 262,000 from the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic.)
Of course, there were those “other matters happening at Paramount.” That line referred to the pending merger between David Ellison’s Skydance and CBS-owner Paramount Global. To many — including Colbert himself — the Late Show cancellation appeared to be a concession to the Trump administration in return for regulatory approval.
With Colbert out of the way, Kimmel is poised to have the most-watched program in late night. (JKL! averaged 2.51 million viewers last season, with a league-leading 274,000 viewers ages 18-49. The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon averaged just 1.35 million total viewers; 200,000 of them were 18-49.)
Well, guess who else Trump has long wanted fired? (You can sit this one out, Seth Meyers.) Last year, the President of the United States almost got his way.
In September 2025, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was put in timeout over a remark its host made while monologuing about suspected Charlie Kirk shooter Tyler Robinson’s perceived political leanings.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.
At the time, both sides of the aisle rushed to distance themselves from what they believed to be Robinson’s ideologies. The right called him “woke,” the left said Kirk wasn’t far-right enough for Robinson. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know conservatives were (almost certainly) correct and Kimmel was (almost certainly wrong). Kimmel’s comments were declared offensive by powerful station-group owners and the head of the FCC, Brendan Carr. Boycotts were threatened, and Disney put Kimmel on ice for what would be just a few days.
The battle between Carr and Disney has only escalated in the near-year that’s followed. The FCC is threatening to revoke ABC’s broadcast license — Carr’s beef extends to daytime talker The View — and Disney’s own formidable attorneys are challenging the government.
It’s all enough to exhaust the longest-tenured current late night host. Fortunately, Kimmel takes off each summer to recharge his batteries — he returned to hosting his own show only last night. It was the 4,000th Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“It’s a lot shows. According to the White House, it’s too many shows,” Kimmel kicked off his 4,000th monologue. “There are those who said we’d never last this long. There are even those who use the regulatory might of the FCC to unconstitutionally try to make sure we didn’t last this long, but we did it the hard way Brendan, and we are still here.”
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