Two pretty best friends.
Photo: Amy Sussman/WireImage
Jimmy Kimmel isn’t convinced that Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show is losing CBS $40 million. In fact, he thinks that number is “beyond nonsensical.” When CBS canceled The Late Show on July 17, the network called it “purely a financial decision,” and later reporting pegged the show’s annual loss at between $40 and $50 million. “These alleged insiders who supposedly analyze the budgets of the shows — I don’t know who they are, but I do know they don’t know what they’re talking about,” Kimmel told Variety on August 18. “They seem to only be focused on advertising revenue and have completely forgotten about affiliate fees, which number in the hundreds of millions — probably in total billions — and you must allocate a certain percentage of those fees to late-night shows.”
Kimmel added, “There’s just not a snowball’s chance in hell that that’s anywhere near accurate.” And he even used his own numbers as proof, saying, “I will tell you, the first 10 years I did the show, they claimed we weren’t making any money — and we had five times as many viewers on ABC as we do now.”
Kimmel has been supporting his fellow Strike Force Five member Colbert throughout this year’s Emmy campaign, going as far as to put up a billboard announcing his intention to vote for Colbert rather than himself. “He’s not just a sweet man,” Kimmel said of Colbert, explaining his campaign. “He is very moral — he’s a very ethical person. He is the salt of the earth. He is a humble person and an extremely smart person.” Wow, Jimmy Kimmel’s a nice guy. He deserves an Emmy — wait, no!
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