There’s no certain proof, but it appears that the cancellation of CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” has given an early boost to ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Before Kimmel went on his regular summer sabbatical, he pulled off a record-breaking June: The show averaged 3.15 million viewers, making it the show’s best-ever monthly audience, ever. Over 23 years of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“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.”
Does this mean orphaned Colbert fans have found a new home? “I’ve always thought of our show as an orphanage,” he quipped.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live” was up 17% from May in viewers (2.69 million) and up 109% in adults 18 to 49 vs. the previous month (0.37 rating vs. 0.18 rating). That made for the best performance in the demo in six years (since April 2020).
Overall, this was quite a season for “Jimmy Kimmel Live” — don’t forget, the entire mess of a controversy that saw him suspended for a few days was back in September. For the full TV season, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” was up 34% from last season (2.62 million vs. 1.95 million) and up 32% in adults 18 to 49 (0.22 rating vs. 0.17 rating). It was the most-watched season for the show since 2014-2015.
