Jimmy Kimmel Says Stephen Colbert’s Late-Night Show Was Not Canceled for Losing $40M

Jimmy Kimmel is defending Stephen Colbert against rumors regarding his talk show’s cancellation.

A month after Colbert announced that The Late Show will be ending after 10 seasons as its host, reports emerged that it had been losing $40 million annually. During a recent interview with Variety, Kimmel, 47, shut down those claims, calling them “beyond nonsensical.”

“These alleged insiders who supposedly analyze the budgets of the shows — I don’t know who they are, but I do know they don’t know what they’re talking about,” the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host said. “They 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.”

Kimmel quipped that it “is surprising how little the media seems to know about how the media works.”

The comedian also said “there’s just not a snowball’s chance in hell that that’s anywhere near accurate,” referring to the massive number. In fact, he claimed that late-night viewership is higher than it has ever been.

“Network television is declining. There’s no question about that,” he began before adding: “The idea that late-night is dead is simply untrue. People just aren’t watching it on network television in the numbers they used to — or live, for that matter. So the advertising model may be dying, but late-night television is the opposite.”

“If you look at streaming numbers — how many streaming shows get 10 million views a week? 20 million? Very few,” he continued. “I think if you really look at how people are watching these shows, and the numbers, it’s right up there with the top shows on Netflix and Hulu. Yet in the media, you’d think this is a rotting corpse — which it most certainly is not. It just doesn’t add up. It’s a great storyline for the press, but it’s simply not true.”

The sudden cancellation came days after Paramount reached a $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump.

The settlement came after Trump alleged that CBS News’ 60 Minutes deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. The network’s parent company, Paramount, is also in the midst of a merger with entertainment company Skydance that requires approval from the Trump administration to take place.

CBS previously wrote in a statement to PEOPLE that the cancellation is “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount” but rather was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”

Kimmel told Variety that he is skeptical of Paramount’s political motives.

“I think we were all shocked and disappointed that this kind of thing is happening in America, and also disappointed that we don’t see more people on the right stepping up and saying, ‘Hey, this is no good,’” Kimmel said. “Silencing comedians, commentators, whatever you want to call people.”

He added: “I have to say, 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. 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.”

Noting that he and Colbert “are really close,” Kimmel also advocated for Colbert to win an Emmy this year.

“He’s not just a sweet man. He is very moral — he’s a very ethical person,” Kimmel gushed. “He is the salt of the earth. He is a humble person and an extremely smart person. I hope that whatever he does next is even more powerful than what he’d been doing. And I think that’s very possible.”

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The final season of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will air during the 2025-2026 season.