Jimmy Kimmel warns that late-night television is being “poisoned”
Jimmy Kimmel has warned that late-night television is being “poisoned” after his own suspension late last year, as well as the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show.
In the past year or so, Kimmel has become the most vocal dissenter of the Trump administration. As a result, his job has been on the line several times, including a seven-day suspension in September 2025 following criticism from conservatives.
In turn, Trump has frequently dissed the show, claiming Kimmel was taken off air by ABC primarily for “lack of talent” and “bad ratings”. He has called for Kimmel to be fired “immediately” several times.
In a new interview with Vulture, Kimmel has fired back against this idea, and instead insisted that “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.”
After adding that it was “silly” to describe the format as less relevant, Kimmel went on, “We’re not just dying of natural causes. We’re being poisoned.”
Kimmel then turned his attention to Colbert’s show, which ended on May 21st. CBS originally insisted that the reasons for the cancellation were “purely financial”. However, much speculation has swirled to the contrary, pointing to CBS’ legal settlement with Donald Trump and its merger with Paramount and Skydance.
Kimmel admitted to feeling “defeated” by Colbert’s cancellation, adding, “In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m looking at my own future.”
In the interview, Kimmel throws shade on the narrative that Colbert’s show was losing money: He gestured to reports that, in 2023, CBS encouraged Colbert to sign a five-year contract, though he opted for three instead.
CBS then pulled the show two years into the contract, citing reports of a $40 million annual loss. Kimmel quipped, “Am I to believe that over the course of those two years, they suddenly started losing $40 million a year? These are just made-up numbers.”
Disney renewed Kimmel’s contract for a year in December 2025, instead of the usual three-year deal. He explained, “Everything is so tumultuous. It’s definitely not how it’s gone in the past.”
His contract now expires in May 2027, and Kimmel isn’t sure what the future will hold from then. “It’s important to me to be responsible,” he mused. “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.”
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