ABC has extended Jimmy Kimmel’s show for at least one year after the late-night comedian was suspended in September for his controversial comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassin, The Post has learned.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will continue to air on the Disney-owned network until at least May 2027 under the new deal, a source told The Post.
Kimmel, 58 – whose current contract expires in May 2026 – told his staff on Monday that the show was renewed, according to Bloomberg, which earlier reported the news.
The agreement was reached months ago, but Kimmel and Disney held off making the announcement out of respect for late-night host Stephen Colbert, according to the report.
CBS in May announced Colbert’s show would end in May 2026, and Kimmel did not want to leave at the same time as Colbert, the report said.
But plans to announce the contract reportedly changed again after Kimmel faced heated backlash over his comments about Kirk, the 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder who was fatally shot at a university event in September.
ABC suspended the comedian in September after he said Republicans were trying to capitalize on Kirk’s death and implied the killer might have been a MAGA conservative.
His suspension came just a few hours after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr warned the network and Disney that “we can do this the easy or the hard way.”
Nexstar and Sinclair – which own over 60 ABC affiliates combined – also quickly yanked Kimmel’s show off the air. Nexstar needs the FCC’s approval for its $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna.
Lefty politicians, journalists and comedians created an uproar as they called for ABC to reinstate Kimmel – arguing the network was bowing to the Trump administration’s demands.
On Sept. 23, just a few days after his suspension, Kimmel returned to air and said “it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man” – though he failed to apologize for his remarks.
Kimmel raked in his largest regular late-night audience ever after his suspension was lifted, and averaged about 1.9 million viewers a night in the third quarter, according to Nielsen data.
That placed him in second place among the three major late-night shows.
Trump has continued to rail against Kimmel, who suggested on his show last month that the president “loses his mind” when he is asked about the Epstein files.
“Why does ABC Fake News keep Jimmy Kimmel, a man with NO TALENT and VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS, on the air? Why do the TV Syndicates put up with it?” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Nov. 20.
“Also, totally biased coverage. Get the bum off the air!!!”
Kimmel has been hosting his show since 2003 and is viewed as a major personality at ABC – regularly speaking at the network’s annual presentation to advertisers and hosting the Oscars four times.
He is also the host of the re-booted “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” series.
But like other late-night TV shows, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” has been shedding viewers, unable to keep up with competition on social media.
While Kimmel and other late-night hosts regularly rack up millions of views online on video clips from their shows, that doesn’t make enough money to balance out the exodus of traditional TV viewers.
Kimmel’s show employs just a few hundred people after cutting costs over the years.
Credit: Source link
