Disney Wants Jimmy Kimmel to Cut Costs or Risk Losing His $100 Million Show

A $100 Million Renewal Question

Jimmy Kimmel is negotiating with Disney, ABC’s parent company, to continue Jimmy Kimmel Live! after his contract ends in May. Deadline reported that the talks are active and that ABC wants a smaller budget. Puck News reported that the show costs about $100 million a year to produce. That is a large bill even for a company that can make eight figures sound like a routine office supply. The stakes look clearer after CBS canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last fall. That program reportedly lost about $40 million annually while costing about $100 million and employing 200 people for an hour-long show each night.

Late Night Has an Advertising Problem

Late-night television also has a shrinking advertising pool. Puck reported that ABC, CBS, and NBC’s late-night programs brought in $221 million in ad revenue in 2024, down from $439 million in 2018. Kimmel averaged 2.51 million viewers per night last season, while Colbert averaged 2.88 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Puck said Kimmel’s show generates more overall revenue than Colbert’s, whose audience is older and less digitally savvy, but added that the numbers are still weak. In other words, the ratings and revenue spreadsheets are not exactly sending thank-you cards.

The Possible Cost-Cutting Menu

Possible savings options are not subtle. Puck suggested cutting weeks of production, using full summer reruns, or removing two months of guest-hosted shows. It also listed cuts to writers, producers, or other staff, along with dropping expensive stunts such as a week of taping in Brooklyn that ABC approved again for this fall. Kimmel could also reduce his own reported $15 million annual fee. Colbert reportedly made $15 million as well. If Disney and Kimmel cannot agree, the show could end after 24 years. Kalshi, the prediction market, puts the chance Kimmel will be fired before the end of the year at 9 percent.

Disney Is Cutting Across the Company

The pressure is part of a wider Disney cost-cutting effort, according to Deadline. The outlet reported that Disney offered longtime executives early retirement in August after starting rounds of layoffs, first announced in April with the elimination of 1,000 jobs and more cuts coming in July, particularly on the Pixar and Nat Geo fronts. That context makes the Kimmel negotiations look less like a lonely late-night squabble and more like another line on a very large corporate spreadsheet. Corporate spreadsheets, as usual, have no interest in nostalgia.

Politics Adds Another Complication

Puck speculated that Kimmel does not want to leave before the end of Trump’s presidency in 2028. Sources told the outlet that, with Colbert off television, Kimmel feels some responsibility to carry the torch as late night’s thorn in the president’s side. In January, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said programs such as Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The View are subject to equal-time rules when political candidates appear, because ABC, CBS, and NBC use broadcast channels. Carr said legacy networks had treated partisan talk shows as bona fide news programs and reminded them of their duty to provide equal opportunities. Kimmel also complained in a Wednesday opening monologue that he could not air an interview with Texas Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico on ABC that week because of Trump.

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