Photo: Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images
The Strike Force Five is letting Stephen Colbert shine solo on May 21. Both The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live! will go dark that evening, Colbert’s last, in solidarity with the departing host — and because competing with that seismic event would be futile anyway. But mostly solidarity. We still don’t know exactly what Colbert has planned for his final show. His dream guest, Pope Leo XIV, may still be out of reach.
It’s a far cry from the late-night wars of the early ’90s. At that time, hosts battled for ratings and guests, prompted by the fracturing of the late-night landscape after Johnny Carson’s departure. Now each show gets fewer viewers, but according to Kimmel, a larger audience tunes in overall. “More people are watching late-night television now than — and I know everybody gets crazy — than when Johnny Carson [was on],” he said when the Strike Force Five guested on The Late Show Monday night. “Obviously, Johnny Carson had a lot of people watching one show, but we have a lot of shows. With 30,000 people watching each one, it adds up. People watch us on YouTube now, and people have a lot of different options, and yet they still keep coming to us.” And by Kimmel’s estimation, his show getting pulled briefly last year cost Disney billions of dollars between lost ad revenue and viewers canceling their Disney+ subscriptions. “I cost our company a lot of money this year, billions,” he said at Upfronts this week. “It is very possible that no employee in the history of any company has cost their employer more than hiring me 24 years ago. Just from a purely mathematical standpoint, it was the worst personnel decision that Disney Corporation has ever made.” What about when that magician hired an apprentice? That went quite poorly, if you’ll recall.
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