Page Six reports that ABC will not renew Jimmy Kimmel's contract beyond 2027, a move that would end the late-night show after 24 years, though the network calls the report "purely speculative."
The report, published Tuesday and first noted by The Hill, cited an unnamed source who said flatly: "His contract is not getting extended." If accurate, the current season of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", which premiered on ABC in 2003, would be its last. Kimmel operates on one-year contracts with the Disney-owned network, a structure that makes any given season potentially the final one.
ABC pushed back immediately. A network spokesperson told The Hill that "this information is inaccurate, any reports about the future of the show at this point are purely speculative." But the denial landed against a backdrop of months of escalating conflict between Kimmel and the Trump administration, regulatory pressure from the FCC, and a late-night television landscape that has already lost one flagship host this year.
The roots of the current standoff trace back to last fall, when Kimmel used his Monday night monologue to mock President Trump's response to the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Kimmel compared Trump's mourning to grieving a "goldfish." He also suggested Kirk's alleged killer was a right-wing extremist, a claim that drew immediate backlash from conservatives, the FCC, and ABC's own affiliate partners.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called the comments "truly sick" and warned broadcasters directly:
"These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or, you know, there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."
That warning carried weight. Nexstar Media Group, which operates 32 ABC affiliate stations reaching 220 million people across 116 markets, announced it would pull "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" from its broadcasts. Sinclair Broadcast Group, which runs 30 ABC affiliates, followed suit and replaced Kimmel's time slot with news programming.
ABC suspended the show indefinitely. The Associated Press reported that the suspension began on Wednesday, September 17, 2025, after the affiliate revolt made Kimmel's continued airing untenable across large swaths of the country. An ABC spokesman confirmed the show would be "pre-empted indefinitely."
President Trump celebrated the move on Truth Social, writing: "Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED."
Disney eventually allowed "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" to return to ABC's schedule. But the two largest affiliate groups refused to go along. Nexstar issued a statement standing by its decision:
"We made a decision last week to preempt 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' following what ABC referred to as Mr. Kimmel's 'ill-timed and insensitive' comments at a critical time in our national discourse. We stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve."
Sinclair's statement was similarly firm, as Fox News reported: "Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming." Between the two companies, 62 ABC affiliates dropped Kimmel, a significant chunk of the network's late-night footprint.
Behind the scenes, Kimmel was not taking the situation quietly. A New York Post report described the host as "absolutely f***ing livid" over ABC's decision to pull him, with sources saying Kimmel was "actively looking for ways to get out of his contract" and had "never been seen this angry."
The situation exposed a fundamental tension: Disney wanted to keep the show on paper, but the affiliate structure that actually delivers programming to viewers was rejecting Kimmel in market after market. A late-night host without affiliates is a host without an audience.
The fallout did not end with the suspension. FCC Chairman Carr launched an early review of ABC's broadcast licenses, an unusual step that signaled the regulatory agency's willingness to use its authority against content it deemed problematic. Carr framed the situation in stark terms, telling reporters: "This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way."
ABC's parent company responded with a legal counterattack. In July, lawyers for ABC and Disney filed a court document accusing the FCC of attempting to censor the network. The filing marked a rare direct confrontation between a major broadcaster and its own regulator, though the current status of that legal challenge remains unclear.
The friction between Kimmel and the administration continued into 2026. In March, Kimmel delivered a parody State of the Union address in which he said first lady Melania Trump had the "glow" of an "expectant widow." President Trump responded by calling on ABC to fire Kimmel outright. Kimmel later argued the joke concerned Trump's age and was not intended as a threat, but the incident added another layer of political toxicity to a show already operating on borrowed time.
The Page Six report, if accurate, would make Kimmel the second major late-night casualty in a single year. Stephen Colbert's 11-year run as host of CBS's "The Late Show" ended in May. Colbert, like Kimmel, had his own dust-ups with the Trump administration, a pattern that increasingly looks less like coincidence and more like a genre running out of room.
Breitbart reported that the potential cancellation reflects economic realities as much as political ones, noting that late-night television's traditional model is dying. But economics and politics are difficult to separate when your host has been suspended by his own network, dropped by 62 affiliates, targeted by the FCC, and publicly condemned by the sitting president, all within a single year.
A second unnamed source quoted by Page Six pushed back on the idea that Kimmel or his team were folding under pressure, saying: "He's not afraid of the administration... Josh isn't folding." The reference to "Josh" was not further identified in the reporting.
ABC's broader institutional challenges extend well beyond late night. The network's own veteran correspondent Terry Moran recently conceded that ABC News operates with a liberal tilt, an admission that only reinforces the perception that the network's programming choices are driven by ideology rather than audience demand.
And the controversy has not been limited to Kimmel himself. Recent episodes of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" continued to create friction, including a Jelly Roll appearance that drew backlash after the musician mocked Trump on the show.
Several critical details remain unresolved. ABC has denied the Page Six report but has not offered any specifics about Kimmel's contract status or the show's future beyond calling the reporting "speculative." The network has not addressed whether the FCC's license review played any role in its programming decisions, nor has it disclosed the current status of its July court filing against the commission.
Kimmel himself has not publicly responded to the Page Six report. Whether he wants to stay, wants to leave, or is simply waiting out a contract that no longer serves either party is unknown. What is known is that a show once powerful enough to command a nightly audience across ABC's full affiliate network now operates in a diminished footprint, under regulatory scrutiny, and with a host whose relationship with his own employer has been publicly adversarial for over a year.
Late-night television spent years telling half the country it was wrong. Now the audience, the affiliates, and the economics are all telling late night the same thing.