Jimmy Kimmel is taking his late night show dark on May 21 in honor of the final episode of “The Late Show,” an act of homage to his timeslot competition as Stephen Colbert ends his roughly 11-year run.
Kimmel will not produce a new episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” next Thursday, instead opting to air a rerun, TheWrap has learned. That will leave Colbert with one less 11:35 competitor as he brings his show to a close after CBS canceled it last year. “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” is currently set to air a new episode.
The move will come more than a week after Kimmel joins his other late night peers — Fallon, “Late Night” host Seth Meyers and “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver, all of whom participated with Colbert and Kimmel in the 2023 writers’ strike-era podcast “Strike Force Five” — on Colbert’s show on Monday. Former “Late Show” host David Letterman, who anchored the program from 1993 to 2015, is set to appear on “The Late Show” on Thursday.
Kimmel set the precedent in 2015 when he chose not to air a new episode against Letterman’s final “Late Show” episode, airing a rerun and urging his audience to tune into that final episode instead. “Please do not watch it,” Kimmel said at the time. “Especially if you’re a young person who doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about. Dave is the best and you should see him.”
Since then, both Kimmel and Colbert have landed in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly rebuked both hosts, praising Colbert’s cancellation last year and urging ABC last month to fire Kimmel over a joke he made about First Lady Melania Trump. Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr also threatened ABC last year over a joke Kimmel made following Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Disney temporarily suspended Kimmel hours later.
LateNighter was first to report this news.
