Jimmy Kimmel is getting the pink slip next year. And it couldn’t come soon enough.
According to new reports, ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is expected to end in 2027, when Kimmel’s contract is expected not to be renewed. The show will wrap up after 24 years on air, closing out with a final episode in May, following the season that kicks off this Tuesday.
A source familiar with the situation confirmed the writing on the wall, saying, “His contract is not getting extended.”
ABC, naturally, is playing coy.
An ABC Entertainment spokesperson pushed back on the report, insisting that “[this] information is inaccurate – any reports about the future of the show at this point are purely speculative.”
Sure it is.
The news comes on the heels of Rosie O’Donnell completing a four-night guest-hosting run on his show that was a ratings success.
O’Donnell was “in her element,” a source told us. So much so that she went viral for mocking her longtime nemesis, President Trump, by performing a parody of the traditional Irish song “Danny Boy” that she called “Donnie Boy.”
Kimmel has been fronting the show since 2003, making him one of the longest-running network late-night hosts.
Insiders say the move is unlikely to be related to Kimmel’s antagonistic relationship with the Trump administration.
Let’s rewind. Last year, after Kimmel returned from his brief suspension, the left treated his comeback like a triumphant resistance moment, a victory lap over President Trump. For about 48 hours, it almost looked believable. Kimmel’s return-day audience hit 6.5 million viewers, and left-wing media outlets crowed as if they’d just won the culture war over President Donald Trump.
Within two days, that audience collapsed by 64%, cratering to just 2.3 million viewers. The curiosity seekers got their fix, the partisan loyalists made their point, and then everybody changed the channel, no longer willing to pretend that they actually cared about Jimmy Kimmel.
Once the numbers cratered, so did ABC’s reason to keep paying him. Kimmel has spent his career signing year-to-year deals instead of long-term contracts, an unusual arrangement in the industry that always gave him an easy exit ramp.
And it looks like ABC has decided to finally take it.
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It has long been suspected that Kimmel would have been let go sooner, but Disney needed distance from the Trump controversy last year.
Remember, Kimmel picked a fight with Trump this year after joking that Melania Trump “had a glow like an expectant widow.” Trump demanded ABC fire him outright and had previously blasted Kimmel’s on-air commentary about Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Then-Disney CEO Bob Iger pulled Kimmel off the air temporarily to let the outrage cool down.
Let’s be honest here. Kimmel was a failing host of a dying format, and he should have been dropped a long time ago.
Even the left doesn’t actually care about him. He stopped being useful to them the moment his ratings stopped proving a point, and once the audience walked away, his leverage did too. The show that spent two decades lecturing conservatives is ending the same way most failed lectures do: with nobody watching.
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