Jimmy Kimmel has been on the brink of cancellation for months. His late-night show was yanked from the air in 2025 after he was suspended. In a candid new interview, the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? host made the shocking claim that late-night shows are being ‘poisoned’ to death. Keep reading to find out more about why he said that.
Jimmy Kimmel Admits Feeling ‘Defeated’ Amid Stephen Colbert’s Cancellation
Stephen Colbert’s late-night talk show went off the air for good in May. CBS canceled the show last year but continued airing episodes until his contract was up in May. The network claimed the show cost too much. However, it was consistently the top-rated late-night show.
Many fans – and Colbert himself – believe it was a political decision to appease President Trump and get the government to approve a merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media. The merger went through shortly after CBS announced The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was canceled.
In an interview with Vulture in April, Jimmy Kimmel revealed how Stephen Colbert’s show getting canceled affected him. “I feel a little bit defeated by it. In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m looking at my own future,” he said.
Jimmy Kimmel has a right to worry. He was briefly suspended in September 2025 over his comments on Charlie Kirk’s death. His contract was up in May of this year, but ABC only offered him a one-year extension. “It’s an unusual position to be in, but I do still have a year left on my contract,” he said about the situation.
His current contract runs out in May 2027, meaning his show could be the next to go off the air.
He Claims Late-Night TV Is Being ‘Poisoned’ To Death
Elsewhere in the interview, Jimmy Kimmel hit back at claims that late-night shows don’t bring in the ratings. “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,” he said.
He admitted that late-night shows are nearing the end, but claimed that it wasn’t due to poor ratings and financial issues. “We’re not just dying of natural causes. We’re being poisoned,” Jimmy Kimmel claimed.
The late-night host said that he was told by ABC that Jimmy Kimmel Live! is still profitable. However, when it came time to renew his contract, they only offered him a one-year deal. So, now he has to decide if he wants to negotiate again in a year or retire.
“It’s important to me to be responsible. 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,” he said about the tough decision.
But for now, Jimmy Kimmel will be on the air for at least another year. Tell us in the comments if you think he will retire in 2027.
Jennifer Havener grew up in a small town in Upstate New York. She earned her B.A in Writing & Literature from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She always knew watching reality TV shows and soap operas, particularly ‘Days of Our Lives’, would come in handy someday. When she’s not writing, she’s playing with her dogs, Lola and Ruger
