President Trump to Jimmy Kimmel: You’re the “Next to go” when it comes to late night firings.
The president, in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, speculated again that the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host will be the next comedian to lose his show, following CBS’s canceling of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” last week.
President Trump added that “The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon “will be gone” shortly after Kimmel is canned.
“These are people with absolutely NO TALENT, who were paid Millions of Dollars for, in all cases, destroying what used to be GREAT television,” Trump posted. “It’s really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it!”
Of course, Kimmel, like Colbert, has been a frequent critic of President Trump. Kimmel notably teared up following Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris last year, saying it was a “terrible night” for several groups, including women, journalists, immigrants, and NATO.
Tuesday’s post echoed what the president said last Friday, when he posted that he heard Kimmel was “next” to go.
That post followed CBS announcing on July 17 that it was ending “The Late Show” in May 2026. CBS said it was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” and had nothing to do with Colbert’s criticism of the president.
Many of Colbert’s fans were skeptical of that claim, and pointed out his show was canceled just days after the host derided Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump. Colbert called the deal a “big fat bribe” to ensure the Trump administration’s FCC approves Paramount’s upcoming merger with Skydance Media.
Colbert remained the top show in the CBS-ABC-NBC late night battle during the second quarter, averaging 2.42 million viewers between April and June. “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” averaged 1.77 million viewers, and Fallon’s “Tonight Show” on NBC averaged 1.19 million viewers. (Greg Gutfeld, whose show airs at 10:00 p.m. ET weeknights on Fox News, averaged 3.29 million viewers during the second quarter.)
Those network late night shows, as The New York Times reported, have been hit by significant drop in ad sales in recent years. Between 2018 and 2023, late night ad revenue dropped 50% to $220 million, according to metrics shared with the Times by Guideline, an ad data firm. And Puck reported “The Late Show” has been losing $40 million per year.
