Jimmy Kimmel in the press room at the 31st Annual Critics Choice Awards (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association)
Jimmy Kimmel strongly believes that the late-night TV format has a lasting, if leaner, future.
The host of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! shared his extremely qualified opinion backstage at the Critics Choice Awards Sunday night, where he and his fellow executive producers accepted the Best Talk Show honor.
Kimmel said that while there “will always be late night talk shows,” they make take on an altered form in the years to come.
“There are some shows that are called ‘late night talk shows’ that aren’t late night talk shows that still have the same format, and maybe we need a different term for them,” Kimmel said backstage at the CCAs (per People.com). “But it seems to me it’s one of the cheapest forms of broadcasting, and it would be very surprising to me if it went away entirely.”
Instead, “Maybe it won’t be as big, maybe there won’t be a big band welcoming the host of the stage, maybe there won’t be 15 writers, but I think there will be some version of late night talk show,” Kimmel asserted. “And in a way, maybe it’ll be better because maybe there will be more opportunities for more people of various backgrounds and ages and niche programming that I think could be a lot of fun to watch.”
Late-night TV of course spent much of 2025 with a target on its back. For starters, CBS announced that The Late Show would be going 100% off the air come May 2026—a bombshell that dropped after host Stephen Colbert opined on-air that Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump, over a 60 Minutes edit, amounted to a “big, fat bribe” as the corporation awaited the FCC’s blessing on a merger.
Months later, two major affiliate groups and then ABC as a whole briefly benched Jimmy Kimmel Live! after a monologue intimated that right-wing activist Charle Kirk’s killer was a MAGA disciple. That characterization drew fire from Nexstar and Sinclair, whom FCC chairman Brendan Carr nudged to take action.
President Trump in turn suggested that Kimmel’s show should suffer the same fate as The Late Show; he also has targeted Seth Meyers of NBC’s Late Night for airing commentary that’s critical of today’s White House.
Kimmel recently inked a new deal to continue with ABC’s JKL through May 2027.