Jimmy Kimmel's Contract, Stephen Colbert And The Future Of Late Night
The fate of late night TV may now be with Jimmy Kimmel Live. Host Jimmy Kimmel's contract with Disney is set to end in 2026, and its renewal or lapse will say something about the genre more generally.
CBS recently canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. While the news came after Colbert criticised his parent company and Donald Trump, CBS maintains that it was 'purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night." The CBS show is among the most popular late night programs. However, it was revealed that it costs over $100 million annually to produce while losing over $40 million per year. According to someone familiar with the show, the budget includes a live band, a 200-person staff and Colbert's annual $20 million salary.
Whether Colbert's cancellation has more to do with politics or finances, it leaves late night in a precarious position. Late night has been declining in recent years. Earlier this year, Taylor Tomlinson left her hosting position on CBS's After Midnight, and instead of replacing her, the network canceled the program. Now, with Colbert's cancellation, CBS will not have a late-night comedy show going forward, a first in over 30 years.
In Q2 of 2025, The Late Show saw 2.42 million in viewership, while Jimmy Kimmel Live saw 1.77 million. The ABC late-night show may well have a lower budget; both the show's budget and Kimmel's salary have not been published. However, canceling a more popular show the year before salary negotiations with Kimmel may leave late night in a precarious spot. Late night has been declining in viewership for years, and it is unclear if Colbert's cancellation will be a one-off or a fundamental shift in late-night TV.
NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers were both recently extended until 2028. NBC is also home to Saturday Night Live. However, SNL is a bit of an outlier since it isn't the typical late night talk show format and recently hit a 3-year ratings high for its most recent 50th season.
Outside of broadcast networks, shows like HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Comedy Central's The Daily Show and Fox News's Gutfeld! may also face issues in a collapsing late night space. These shows are somewhat separate from the traditional broadcast approach to late night TV. However, the number of late night politics shows on cable networks has also fallen in recent years.
Much of the decline of late-night comedy TV has been linked to streaming and VOD programming. While Netflix has entered the 'late night' space with 2018's My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman and, more recently, Everybody's Live with John Mulaney in 2025, streaming services have largely not adopted the late night model.
The future is unclear for broadcast late night programming, and late night more generally, but a decision on Kimmel will mean a lot for the industry in the upcoming year.
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