It’s been quite the roller coaster ride for late-night talk show hosts over the past few months, where the behind-the-scenes happenings at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live! have arguably been as relevant as anything actually on the shows. Jimmy Kimmel saw record ratings September 23, when he returned after being taken off the air a week earlier. However, that spike proved to be short-lived.
ABC announced on September 17 that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be pre-empted “indefinitely” following comments the host made on the show about Charlie Kirk’s death, but after strong reactions from around Hollywood and an allegedly large number of Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN subscription cancellations, he was brought back six days later. Kimmel’s first episode back reached an audience of 6.26 million total viewers in Live+Same calculations, but just two days later on September 25, that number fell to 2.3 million, per the New York Post.
In the coveted 25-54 demo, Jimmy Kimmel Live! fell 73% from Tuesday to Thursday, reportedly pulling in 1.7 million viewers on September 23 but only 465,000 in that age range on the 25th.
The more than 6 million Live+Same viewers (which increases to 8.6 million when you add in DVR views over the next three days, according to Nielsen Live+3 ratings via LateNighter) were the most the talk show has seen on a regularly scheduled episode since March 2015.
While Jimmy Kimmel’s numbers did fall on subsequent episodes that week, he still dominated the 11:35 p.m. ET timeslot, with his three first-run shows averaging 4.89 million viewers — more than double his average a week earlier.
Given all the drama surrounding Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, it was expected that his return to the 2025 TV schedule would attract many who don’t regularly watch the show, which the host definitely joked about in his comeback monologue.
After played a clip of President Trump saying Jimmy Kimmel “had no ratings,” the host responded:
Well, I do tonight. You almost have to feel sorry for him. He tried his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly.
Fans and celebrities alike praised Kimmel’s return to the air, as the fallout continued behind the scenes with Bob Iger and Disney brass. Shareholders reportedly sought details on the decision to suspend the show, while some sources suggested employee safety might also have been a factor.
The Jimmy Kimmel brouhaha came just a couple of months after it was announced that The Late Show was ending next year. The longtime CBS late-night show is currently hosted by Stephen Colbert, and with many debating whether the cancellation was financially justified or politically motivated, Kimmel and Colbert have formed a late-night bromance, each appearing on each other’s shows Tuesday, September 30.
It will be interesting to see if that leads to another bump for Jimmy Kimmel Live! or to Stephen Colbert’s show when those numbers are available. For now you can catch both hosts at 11:35 p.m. ET weeknights, with Kimmel on ABC and Colbert on CBS.