President Donald Trump suggested that ABC "indefinitely" pulled "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" largely because of poor ratings, and a look at the late-night program's audience reveals a steady decline over the past decade.
The entertainment industry was stunned on Wednesday when Disney announced it would pull ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" for the foreseeable future. The company faced mounting pressure from ABC affiliate stations around the country, as well as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), over controversial comments the late-night host made about the assassination of conservative icon Charlie Kirk.
"Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else," Trump told reporters on Thursday.
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"Jimmy Kimmel Live" has seen its ratings drop significantly over the past decade, as the program averaged 2.4 million viewers in 2015 and has been trending downward ever since. Kimmel's program averaged 2.2 million in 2016 and 2017, fell to 2.1 million in 2018, dropped to 1.9 million in 2019 and sunk to 1.8 million in 2020. By 2021, "Jimmy Kimmel Live" managed only 1.5 million nightly viewers.
Kimmel's 2025 average viewership of 1.6 million is down 37% compared to 2015 totals.
However, the decline is even more significant among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults, ages 25-54.
"Jimmy Kimmel Live" averaged nearly 1 million viewers among the critical demo in 2015 but plummeted to only 261,000 in 2025. The ABC late-night program shed a staggering 72% of the audience that helps pay the bills over the past decade.
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The past decade also coincides with the rise of streaming and cord-cutting, but not every late-night host is hemorrhaging viewers. "Jimmy Kimmel Live" is trailing Fox News Channel's "Gutfeld!" by significant margins.
In 2025, "Gutfeld!" averaged 3.2 million total viewers to thump Kimmel's average audience of 1.6 million by 107%. When it comes to the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic, "Gutfeld!" has averaged 381,000 compared to 261,000 for Kimmel as the Fox News program leads by 46%.
"Gutfeld!" also leads Kimmel among adults, 18-49, with the Fox News late-night show averaging 248,000 younger viewers compared to 177,000 for the ABC offering.
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On Monday, Kimmel accused conservatives of reaching "new lows" in trying to pin a left-wing ideology on 22-year-old suspect Tyler Robinson, even though prosecutors reaffirmed those ties in Tuesday's indictment.
"We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it," Kimmel said.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr issued a threat against Disney if it didn't address the controversy. Hours later, Nexstar Media Group, which owns hundreds of television stations, announced it would preempt Kimmel's show on its ABC affiliates starting Wednesday night "for the foreseeable future" and would replace it with other programming.
Sinclair, Inc., also announced Wednesday that "due to problematic comments regarding the murder of Charlie Kirk in programming provided to broadcast stations by ABC, Sinclair and its partners, which operate ABC stations in 30 markets in the U.S., will stop airing Jimmy Kimmel's show until further notice."
Disney then decided to take Kimmel off the air altogether.
"Jimmy Kimmel Live will be preempted indefinitely," a Disney spokesperson said.
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Fox News Digital's Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.
