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Jimmy Kimmel has sent his thanks to CBS for inadvertently boosting the ratings for his eponymous late night show, after the network axed The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Colbert’s final broadcast aired in mid-May, forcing his dedicated viewers to tune into another late night show. Now, it seems that many have chosen Kimmel’s ABC show. In June, the show averaged 3.15 million viewers for its best-ever monthly audience in its 23-year history.
“The ratings are very strong, which we are very grateful to CBS for their wisdom,” Kimmel slyly told Variety. “We were doing pretty well before that, but that really helped.”
Asked if he thought Colbert fans had found a new home, he quipped: “I’ve always thought of our show as an orphanage.”
Jimmy Kimmel Live! viewership was up 17 percent from May, with an increase of 2.69 million viewers. Overall, the show’s full season was up 34 percent in ratings from last season, taking the total figure from 1.95 million to 2.62 million. It was the most-watched season for the show since the 2014 to 2015 edition.
After Colbert’s program went off air, Kimmel’s show immediately saw an increase in viewers.
On June 1, the first night that Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NBC’s The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon returned with new episodes since Colbert had signed off, Kimmel’s show dominated the competitive 11:35 p.m. time slot, according to numbers from Nielsen.
Kimmel was watched by 2.185 million total viewers that night, a 53 percent year-on-year increase.
CBS announced the cancellation of the long-running Late Show franchise last July, just days after Colbert criticized the network’s parent company, Paramount, for reaching a $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over accusations that its series 60 Minutes deceptively edited a 2024 interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
The final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert attracted an audience of 6.74 million viewers, making it the most-watched weeknight episode during the show’s 11-year run.
Weeks after the Colbert finale, it emerged that the outgoing host had stuck CBS with a heavy bill after he used the Peanuts TV specials’ theme song without the correct licensing permission during his last-ever episode.
During the May 21 finale, Colbert had spoken about how owners of the Peanuts catalog had been cracking down on copyrights for the Guaraldi song catalog, before the show’s live band began to play Vince Guaraldi’s famous song “Linus and Lucy.”
“Anyone illegally using that music is gonna have to pay through the nose,” Colbert said. As his band played the song, he then joked, “Oh no! I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money!”
The network paid an undisclosed amount to Lee Mendelson Film Productions Inc., to cover the licensing fee. LMFP later said it had donated the amount to World Central Kitchen, the non-profit organization created by Chef José Andrés.
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