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| Kimmel and Colbert |
ABC’s suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” follows a drop in late-night TV viewership and ad revenue, intensified by Nexstar and Sinclair, major ABC affiliate owners, preempting the show indefinitely over Kimmel’s comments. Disney-owned ABC announced the move Wednesday, with no clear return date for the program.
The decision follows Paramount’s choice to cancel “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” after its current season. While networks don’t publicly share late-night show finances, Puck reported CBS insiders estimated Colbert’s show was losing over $40 million annually. Industry-wide viewership and ad revenue declines suggest similar struggles at other networks.
According to LateNighter, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” “The Late Show,” and NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Seth Meyers” have lost 70% to 80% of their audience since 2015, when Kimmel’s show shifted to 11:35 p.m.
Nielsen data shows “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”’s 18-49 demographic share fell from 0.68 in 2013-14 to 0.16 in 2024-25, compared to 0.18 for “The Late Show” and 0.13 for “The Tonight Show” in the same period.
A network TV analyst told LateNighter that 2022 was likely the last profitable year for most traditional late-night shows, with losses expected to grow. Guideline reported ad revenue for major network late-night shows dropped from $439 million in 2018 to $220 million last year.
Cost-cutting measures reflect these challenges. NBC eliminated the 8G Band, the house band for “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” in 2024 after a decade. CBS chose not to replace “The Late Late Show with James Corden” when he left in 2023, ending a run that began in 1995 with hosts Tom Snyder, Craig Kilborn, and Craig Ferguson.