Credit: Disney/ABCEarlier this summer, Jimmy Kimmel Live! Host Jimmy Kimmel took a break from the show. Rumors swirled that Kimmel was going to leave his late-night show on ABC.
However, Kimmel revealed that his son, Billy, had his third open heart surgery, and he stepped away from his show for a short period to be with his son while he recovered.
Kimmel has been hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! since 2003, and his contract ends at its end. 2025, rumors swirled that Kimmel would leave his show to be with his family. However, a Kimmel representative said he had not decided on the show’s future.
Kimmel is number one in Late Night with 18-49-year-olds, while The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is number one in overall ratings.
However, in a new interview, Kimmel admitted that he doesn’t think he will be hosting his show 10 years from now, but it’s not for the reasons you think.
Kimmel believes all late-night television shows will be canceled within the next decade as the demise of network television continues.
I don’t know if there will be any late-night television shows on network TV in 10 years. Maybe there’ll be one but there won’t be a lot of them. Maybe more significantly, the fact that people are easily able to watch your monologue online the next day, it really cancels out the need to watch it when it’s on the air and once people stop watching it when it’s on the air, networks are going to stop paying for it to be made.
Jimmy Kimmel said network TV won’t last much longer with so many options. The Walt Disney Company has dealt with this decline in ratings on its network TV channels for years.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has not decided what to do with Disney’s network TV channels, which have become a net loser for the company. Plans are in the works to spin off ESPN to a streaming-only platform, but ESPN has something that the other network channels don’t have: sports.
If Kimmel is right about the decline of the late-night talk show, television is losing a program that has existed since its inception. Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Jay Leno all made their names as late-night hosts.
It would also mean the loss of current shows and hosts like Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers, who have become comedy mainstays.
The Academy Awards
Jimmy Kimmel also discussed his decision not to host this year’s Academy Awards Show.
I just decided I didn’t want to deal with that this year. It was just too much last year. You wind up pushing everything off ’til after the Oscars, and then you have to do everything you promised to do after the Oscars.
Kimmel has hosted the Academy Awards four times, but with his family obligations and his show, he does not see himself going back anytime soon.
There is no word yet on who will host this year’s Oscar ceremony.
What do you think of Kimmel’s prediction of the downfall of late-night television?