Disney Executive Won't Confirm Jimmy Kimmel's Future at ABC
Dana Walden, Disney's president and chief creative officer, declined to say whether Jimmy Kimmel will remain ABC's late-night host beyond the current season, citing the difficult economics of late-night television.
Disney's top creative executive declined to say whether Jimmy Kimmel will still be hosting his ABC late-night show a year from now, leaving the future of one of the network's most prominent franchises unresolved as the economics of late-night television grow increasingly difficult.
Dana Walden, president and chief creative officer of The Walt Disney Company, was asked directly at the Bloomberg Screentime summit whether Kimmel would be in the host's chair twelve months from now. «Well, I'm certainly not going to make that announcement with you here today,» Walden responded with a grin, according to an account of the exchange.
The question followed months of unconfirmed speculation that the current season of «Jimmy Kimmel Live!» could be its last, with the show potentially signing off in 2027. Walden did not confirm or deny that possibility, instead describing late night as «a very challenging day part» and framing the decision as a business question rather than a verdict on Kimmel's performance.
She noted that Kimmel's ratings have risen, but cautioned that the gains come against a shrinking pool of viewers watching late-night programming on broadcast television. Walden also pointed to the show's digital footprint, saying that while millions watch clips on YouTube and on demand, that distribution «is not a lucrative opportunity for a very premium talk show.»
«We're trying to make sense of the business while also honoring a deep partnership,» she said, adding that she loves Kimmel and shares a great friendship with him. She said Disney is working through what Kimmel wants, what the right thing to do is, and what makes sense for the company's business.
Kimmel's tenure has been eventful. Disney briefly suspended his show in September 2025 after comments he made about the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk sparked backlash. Earlier this year he clashed with the White House after joking that first lady Melania Trump had «a glow like an expectant widow.» Those episodes turned Kimmel into a flashpoint in broader debates over free speech and political pressure on broadcasters.
The uncertainty around Kimmel reflects a wider retrenchment in late-night television. At the same summit, comedian Conan O'Brien described watching the landscape shift during his seventeen years at NBC, recalling that executives grew increasingly cost-conscious as new competitors emerged. «It's a little like Detroit and automobiles,» O'Brien said, comparing the erosion of late-night's dominance to the decline of the American auto industry as foreign competition surged.
O'Brien, who spent decades in late night at NBC and TBS before moving into podcasts with «Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend,» has seen the contraction firsthand. TBS ended its late-night programming in 2022 after canceling «Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.»
More recently, CBS pulled the plug on «The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,» replacing it with Byron Allen's syndicated comic talk show «Comics Unleashed.» «The Late Show» was reportedly losing CBS $40 million a year and carried a budget of roughly $100 million per season. While «Comics Unleashed» draws a fraction of Colbert's audience, CBS reportedly expects to turn a $15 million profit in the same time slot through aggressive cost-cutting.
Those numbers illustrate the pressure facing Disney as it weighs Kimmel's future. Broadcast late-night shows once delivered large, reliable audiences and strong advertising revenue, but viewers have migrated to streaming, social platforms, and on-demand viewing, fragmenting the audience and undermining the premium economics that sustained big-budget talk shows for decades.
For now, Walden offered no timeline and no decision. Her comments suggest Disney is weighing the value of a long-running partnership against a business model that no longer guarantees returns, leaving Kimmel's status as ABC's late-night host an open question heading into the next season.
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