Jimmy Kimmel‘s late-night show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, was recently taken off the air “indefinitely,” and the president of the United States, Donald Trump, appears to be pretty happy about it. In fact, he even went as far as to call the show “ratings challenged” on his Truth Social handle, as compared to other late-night talk shows. But how much truth is there to it?
According to the latest reports from Nielsen Media Research, which tracks television viewership across networks, Kimmel’s show has slipped in its viewership record by 11% to 1.104 million viewers. This has made it the third most-watched show in September, with CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert leading in first place, averaging 2.812 million total viewers, and the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on NBC coming in hot at second with a surprise 17% rise to 1.330 million viewers (via The Hindustan Times).
Before that, Late Nighter reported the viewership ratings of nine night talk shows with the wrapping of the second quarter of 2025. These records had Stephen Colbert‘s show leading as well, averaging 2.42 million viewers across 41 first-run episodes. At the time, it comfortably outplaced Kimmel’s ABC show and Fallon’s NBC show, which were at 1.77 million viewers and 1.19 million viewers, respectively.
At the same time, it’s worth noting that in the advertiser-coveted 18–49 demo, Kimmel surged ahead with 220,000 viewers, making it his strongest performance in a year and edging out Colbert
Still, even though those ratings didn’t entirely help make Kimmel’s show rank on top, they are still commendable ratings for a late-night talk show. So Donald Trump‘s calling it a “ratings-challenged” piece isn’t exactly correct after acknowledging all these numbers.
Donald Trump Had Scathing Criticism For Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Others
After it was confirmed that ABC was going to take Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air indefinitely, President Donald Trump shared a pretty enthusiastic response in response to this move from the network. If anything, not only did he openly troll Kimmel’s show and its ratings, but he even had scathing criticism for other late-night shows and their hosts.
This included Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon‘s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers‘ Late Night with Seth Meyers. Taking to his Truth Social handle, he posted,
Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT
Yet, as disappointing as that is, it doesn’t quite come as a surprise, considering how all of these hosts have been pretty vocal with their mocking of Trump and his administration, never missing the chance to put him under scrutiny.
Why Has Jimmy Kimmel’s Show Been “Pre-empted Indefinitely”?
For those who might not be aware, it was announced earlier by a spokesperson for the Disney-owned network in a statement to Deadline that “Jimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely.” This decision came in the wake of the comments that the talk-show host made about the “MAGA gang” trying to score political points off Charlie Kirk’s assassination on September 10.
On Monday night’s show, Kimmel said,
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.
That’s not all. Kimmel also proceeded to scrutinize the flags being flown at half-mast in honor of Kirk, even poking fun at Trump over his reaction to Kirk’s shooting, saying, “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.” These comments didn’t take long to land him in trouble.
But while that’s that, numerous people have still taken a stand to defend Jimmy Kimmel over his comments. It’s worth noting, though, that ABC has not announced a cancellation of the late-night show, nor has Kimmel been fired yet, with a person familiar with the talk show host’s situation telling CNBC that the bosses at the network intended to speak to him about what he should say when he goes back on air (per BBC).
With all of this out there, what do you think about this? Do you have something to say? Let us know in the comments below.