ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel criticized CBS again for canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and blasted President Trump, while dismissing reports from CBS insiders that Colbert’s show was losing $40–50 million a year.
“I just want to say that the idea that Stephen Colbert’s show was losing $40 million a year is beyond nonsensical,” Kimmel claimed in reaction during a recent interview with Variety.
Kimmel also claimed “these insiders” discussing how much money Colbert’s show loses “seem to only be focused on advertising revenue and have completely forgotten about affiliate fees, which number in the hundreds of millions — probably in total billions — and you must allocate a certain percentage of those fees to late-night shows.”
“There’s just not a snowball’s chance in hell that that’s anywhere near accurate,” said Kimmel. “Suddenly he’s losing $40 million a year? I will tell you, the first 10 years I did the show, they claimed we weren’t making any money — and we had five times as many viewers on ABC as we do now. Who knows what’s true? All I know is they keep paying us — and that’s kind of all you need to know.”
Kimmel, who backed Democrats in 2024, claimed Paramount’s merger with Skydance was tied to canceling Colbert’s show, calling it an effort to “silence comedians and commentators.”
“If Joe Biden had used his muscle to get Sean Hannity kicked off the air, you may be surprised to learn that I would not support that,” Kimmel said. “I would, in fact, support Sean Hannity in that situation, because I thought one of the founding principles of this country was free speech. But people don’t seem to care about protecting it unless you agree with them.”
In the mid-July recorded interview, Kimmel noted Trump was booed at a WWE event, claimed the political climate may be turning against the president and his agenda, stating: “I saw him [Trump] get booed at the WWE event the other night, and it really cheered me up. Like, you know what? If Trump is getting booed at wrestling, America is starting to catch on.”
However, this also happened around the same time President Trump suggested ABC may cancel Kimmel’s program next, likely infuriating the left-wing comic.
BFF FREAKOUT: Jimmy Kimmel says ‘F*** you’ to CBS for cancelling Stephen Colbert’s show
