How desperate are media reporters who believe they “know how their audience thinks” for clicks and engagement these days? The return from scheduled summer vacations for two late night TV hosts both warranted breaking news coverage.
For Jimmy Kimmel, who has turned his annual summer respite into an homage to the days where Johnny Carson regularly took time off and allowed guest hosts a chance for career amplification, it was right back to work on his favorite monologue subject, and with nearly three months of material at his disposal he had a field night, as THE WRAP’s Alyssa Ray gushed mere minutes after the show ended on the East Coast:
During Tuesday’s monologue on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the late night host recapped all the “crazy stuff” Trump did while he was on vacation, highlighting that the president’s actions failed to address the issues that plagued the nation at the start of summer.
“When I left for summer break in the middle of June, the country was a mess. We were at war with Iran at that time. Gas prices were high at that time. Inflation was high. Mitch McConnell was either alive or dead. Nobody seemed to have any idea which,” Kimmel said. “The Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool was a big green slop hole. And now, only three months later, I am so pleased to report that thanks to your favorite president, DJ Jazzy Donald, every one of those problems has been solved. We made America great again.”
As Kimmel’s studio audience erupted into a round of boos, the late night host feigned ignorance on their response: “It said on Truth Social, he made America great again. Wait, are you telling me the president of the United States had three full months and spent $20 million and couldn’t even get a pool cleaned?”
Ray then devoted the balance of her “story” to a verbatim transcript, which came in handy for us West Coast viewers who chose to watch it live but might have been distracted by one of the most gripping and latest-ending U.S. Open tennis matches in history. Thanks to Ray, I didn’t have to bother even looking at my TV while my phone kept me riveted.
Perhaps she and her management were triggered into a greater sense of urgency by the rumors and rumblings that had emerged earlier in the day, which naturally RAW STORY was all over like white on rice. Bennito L. Kelly devoted an entire story to amplifying little more than parochial gossip:
Kimmel will reportedly see his show come to an end in 2027 amid a feud with President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, the New York Post’s Page Six reported that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will air its final season in 2027. The end of his show comes as it has faced backlash from the Trump administration after criticism by Kimmel. An anonymous source told Page Six, “his contract is not getting extended,” leading to the end of his show. The next season of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is scheduled to begin on Tuesday night and will wrap up in May 2027…
A spokesperson for ABC Entertainment denied Page Six’s reporting, telling its reporters, “[this] information is inaccurate,” and “any reports about the future of the show at this point are purely speculative.”An anonymous ABC insider told Page Six that the network’s decision to part ways with Kimmel “wouldn’t have anything to do with Trump.” Page Six noted that cost reductions likely play a major role.
As nothingburgers go, this was a double double animal style with grilled onions. None of this is news. Were it indeed true last night would have been the ideal opportunity to announce such news publicly. Carson gave his viewers a one-year countdown when he announced his own impending departure in the spring of 1991 and as it turned out the fine folks at CBSkydance actually defied the pundits’ odds and gave Stephen Colbert a similarly long plank to walk. No such announcement occurred last night–not even a thinly veiled snark alluding to it.
But that doesn’t mean that negotiations and evaluations aren’t ongoing and if one can actually find the capacity to divorce themselves from ideological panic that somehow it is a network’s moral obligation to continue to throw good money after bad to provide a temple for those who despise Trump to worship at night after night the numbers don’t exactly point in an encouraging direction for Kimmel any more than they did for Colbert. Don’t just take my word it. Read what our friend Copilot spits out when one queries Kimmel’s numbers:
In 2025, Jimmy Kimmel Live! (JKL) posted gains in both total viewers and the key Adults 18–49 demographic, standing out among late-night shows. The program averaged 2.013 million viewers, up 14% from 2024, and 230,000 demo viewers, up 4% year-over-year…In the fourth quarter, JKL averaged 2.38 million total viewers across 38 first-run episodes, a 29% increase from Q3, and 271,000 demo viewers, up 12% from the previous quarter…As of May 10, 2026, Jimmy Kimmel Live! averaged 2.198 million viewers per episode, representing a slight weekly decline of 19% from the previous week, with a 0.68% rating … The show ranked 15th among ABC programs and 54th overall on TV, indicating continued strong performance despite fluctuations. Audience engagement metrics, such as Buzz Score, showed moderate online activity, with JKL peaking at #769 in popularity during September–October 2025.
What stands out amidst that sea of numbers are two indisputable facts: Despite the perception that Kimmel is somehow a must-see hang with every cool Gen Xer and millennials, 89 per cent of its TV audience is over 50–pretty much the same skew that doomed Colbert. And even when all of the commotion surrounding his brief in-season vacay last fall was occurring his online activity was eclipsed by 768 other pieces of content. You regular readers remember that, I’m sure, although I know we didn’t help goose his standing much.
And do try to remember that unlike last year this is now all part of Josh D’Amaro’s sandbox, not Bob Iger’s. The guy that comes from running theme parks successfully who just had a pretty crummy box office summer unable to reinvigorate the STAR WARS-verse and incorrectly thinking MOANA was even capable of it. When Rosie O’Donnell wasn’t lifting up the time slot with her own grand return the balance of Kimmel’s summer was mired in mediocrity, and on any given night was capable of being eclipsed by just about anything. You may not have been paying attention but you’d best believe the few that remain that get paid to do so were–enough so that TV INSIDER’s Martin Holmes was arm-twisted into issuing his own urgent story last week:
The late-night ratings for Monday, August 24, are in, and in perhaps surprising news, Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed beat ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NBC’s The Tonight Show for the first time in the key Adults 18-49 demographic.
According to LateNighter, citing preliminary live-plus-same-day ratings for August 24, a rerun of Comics Unleashed averaged 161,000 viewers in the coveted 18-49 demo. In comparison, an original episode of Kimmel, guest-hosted by Jelly Roll, drew 158,000 demo viewers in its first half hour, while a Tonight Show rerun drew 154,000…Comics Unleashed was the only show to post increases from the week prior. It was up 14.5 percent in total viewers and a massive 84.5 percent in the 18-49 demo. In comparison, Kimmel‘s full hour was down 15 percent in total viewers and 42 percent in the demo from when Rosie O’Donnell guest-hosted the Monday before.
Again, please try to look past the sizzle and look at the steak itself. No matter how badly Mr. Allen and his minions might want to position it otherwise that’s a statistical three-way tie. What is significant is that Mr. Roll skewed even older than Kimmel and an original episode with Kimmel’s name on it was beaten by a rerun of a show that its licensee was already $55 million to the good on before a single second of advertising on any owned-and-operated station was sold within it. Trust me, Josh D’Amaro and his troopers pay attention to that. Ask any recently deposed Disney marketing or strategy executive if you won’t take just my word for it.
So like it or not, savor what you have with Kimmel for now, because odds are those Page Six rumors aren’t going away and as anyone who knows the tabloid world will attest there’s a lot more smoke to that kind of fire that mainstream journos will care to admit. And please reread carefully–cost reductions likely play a major role.
But fear not, ye who despise all things orange and fat, if not Jesus. Simultaneously to Kimmel’s RTO was that of Jon Stewart to the DAILY SHOW after a mere month off. DEADLINE’s Armando Tinoco and his Penske-verse mates felt that was newsworthy:
The comedian and Comedy Central host didn’t waste any time trolling Donald Trump and the chaos he’s caused over the last few weeks, like renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America. Toward the end of his opening monologue, he likened Trump aide Natalie Harp to Elizabeth Holmes following the viral trailer for the documentary You Can See Everything. Stewart showed a clip from CNN where they displayed one of the letters she wrote Trump, in which she allegedly says, “I never want to bring you anything but you. The show host added, “For the sake of my own sanity, I’m going to pretend that’s referring to the dishwashing liquid.” Stewart did not stop there and added, “This is unbelievable. The outside world is somehow fed into this woman — a single conduit. And from there, she is the filter to all the information that is directly fed into Donald Trump’s psyche.”
Not that the rest of the free world hadn’t already done its own series of takes on L’Affaire Natalie, present company included. But hey, now that Jon Leibowitz has had the chance to join in, we can all go back to our usual humdrum existences. Bear in mind that at least today no mole leaked anything to Page Six about THE DAILY SHOW’s demise. It’s not like anything else might be going on within the hallowed halls of CBS or Paramount, or any pending legal payments, that might further cloud an already dismal financial picture for a network with minimal other original content that attorneys general are urging get sold off, right?
Yeah, you should probably savor Stewart too. For now.
Until next time…