Jimmy Kimmel strongly denied that late-night television is dead following the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show.
“Network television is declining. There’s no question about that,” Kimmel, 57, told Variety in an interview published on Tuesday, August 18. “But more people are watching late-night television than ever before — and I include Johnny Carson in that. People may find that shocking.”
Kimmel — who has hosted his show, Jimmy Kimmel Live since 2003 — attributed his theory to the various platforms in which viewers watch their content.
“Our monologues get between 2 and 5 million views, sometimes more, every night. Seth Meyers gets 2 million on YouTube alone. We’re not even talking about Instagram or the other platforms. The Daily Show — Jon Stewart on a Monday night will get 5 million views. Then you add in the TV ratings. So the idea that late-night is dead is simply untrue,” he explained.
According to Kimmel, late-night icon Johnny Carson was drawing in “around 9 million viewers a night” at the peak of his career.
“But people are still watching late-night — just in different places,” he said. “People just aren’t watching it on network television in the numbers they used to — or live, for that matter.”
While the comedian contended that the “advertising model may be dying,” but was adamant that late-night also dying is “simply not true.”
“I think if you really look at how people are watching these shows, and the numbers, it’s right up there with the top shows on Netflix and Hulu,” he said. “Yet in the media, you’d think this is a rotting corpse — which it most certainly is not. It just doesn’t add up.”
Colbert announced last month that the network was pulling the plug on his long-running series. His final episode will air in May 2026.
