Jimmy Kimmel has some thoughts on the supposed demise of late-night TV.
In a new interview with Vulture, the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host spoke about the future of the genre following his clash with Trump, which included the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s CBS show “The Late Show” and his suspension over comments about Charlie Kirk’s death.
After Colbert’s final episode aired on May 21, Kimmel told Vulture that he “feels a little defeated about this.” “In many ways, I feel like I’m looking into my future.”
CBS canceled “The Late Show” in July 2025, a year before Colbert’s three-year contract ended, citing “purely financial reasons,” despite much speculation that Colbert’s anti-Trump views had something to do with it, particularly the Paramount-Skydance merger behind the scenes. Colbert’s show was reported to be losing $40 million a year, but Kimmel told Vulture that’s hard to believe, citing a 2023 New York Times article that said Colbert was offered a five-year contract but decided to take a three-year deal.
“Can you believe that in the last two years they suddenly started losing $40 million a year?” he said. “These are just made-up numbers.”
Kimmel said ABC told him “very specifically” that his show was still profitable.
“When you add in terrestrial television ratings to the views that my colleagues and I get every day online, we have far more people watching late-night TV than ever before,” 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 usual three years. “It’s all very confusing,” Kimmel told Vulture. “It seemed to make sense. This is clearly not the way things have been done in the past.”
When asked if he had ever thought about retiring, Kimmel said he did not yet know when the time would come. “It’s important to me to be responsible,” he said. “I know it would be a blaze of glory and a lot of applause, but that would be a very selfish thing to do.”
That is if he isn’t expelled first. President Trump has repeatedly called for Kimmel to be fired and recently joked that Melania Trump had the “glow of a pregnant widow.” In that case and in Kirk’s case, Kimmel said, “I sided with the truth as a defense. What if I actually did something wrong? I mean, it’s inevitable.”
Kimmel said of the president, “I don’t love him. I don’t hate him. I feel bad for him. Obviously he didn’t get a lot of hugs.”
Read Kimmel’s full profile on Vulture here.
