ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" will wrap for good after its upcoming season, ending a 24-year run marked by plunging into political combat and repeated clashes with the Trump administration.
Sources familiar with the situation told Page Six that Kimmel's contract will not be extended beyond the coming season, which begins Tuesday and is expected to conclude in May 2027. Kimmel has hosted the ABC late-night show since 2003, signing year-to-year deals, a point of pride for the host. That arrangement now appears to have made the exit simpler for a network parent company in the middle of a corporate overhaul.
An ABC Entertainment spokesperson pushed back on the reporting, calling it "inaccurate" and insisting that "any reports about the future of the show at this point are purely speculative." But the network's denial did not include a firm commitment to renew Kimmel, and unnamed insiders told Page Six the decision is effectively made.
Josh D'Amaro, Disney's new top executive, has reportedly been offering veteran executives early retirement packages as part of a broader restructuring effort. Sources described the move as driven by cost reduction, not politics. One TV insider told Page Six that D'Amaro would not be swayed by political considerations in making programming decisions.
Still, the timing is hard to separate from a bruising stretch for Kimmel and ABC. The host's final year comes after a season defined less by comedy than by political controversy, regulatory confrontation, and affiliate revolts, a sequence of events that tested the network's appetite for the culture-war fights Kimmel seemed eager to pick.
CBS ended "Late Show with Stephen Colbert" in May, meaning Kimmel's departure would continue a broader retreat from the combative, Trump-era model of late-night television that turned monologues into partisan editorials.
The most damaging episode came in September 2025, when conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at an event in Utah. Alleged shooter Tyler Robinson reportedly said he had "had enough" of Kirk's "hatred." Kimmel used his monologue to claim the opposite, that the "MAGA gang" was trying to characterize Robinson as one of their own, when, in Kimmel's telling, the killer was exactly that.
Kimmel told his audience:
"We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them."
The remarks contradicted the available evidence about Robinson's stated motive and drew immediate condemnation. Disney and ABC announced they would pull the show indefinitely, stating that the network "strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk."
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr went further. He called Kimmel's comments "truly sick" and warned broadcasters directly. National Review reported Carr's public statement:
"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."
Major ABC affiliates Nexstar and Sinclair both pulled "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" from their stations. Sinclair went a step further, stating it would not air the show even after it returned. Carr called the affiliate revolt "unprecedented" and described it as "an important turning point."
Behind the scenes, Kimmel did not take the suspension quietly. An anonymous producer described the host as "absolutely f***ing livid," the New York Post reported, adding that Kimmel was actively seeking ways to break his ABC contract. One anonymous source framed the situation in stark terms:
"This is clearly the government overreaching. There's no such thing as free speech in America, if the government can lean on companies to stop any content they don't like."
ABC eventually reinstated the show. The network said in a statement that it had "spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy" before reaching the decision to bring him back. AP News reported the reinstatement came amid significant backlash from celebrity supporters and broader concerns about media freedom. But the damage, to ratings, to affiliate relationships, and to the network's tolerance for controversy, was already done.
A Turning Point USA spokesperson, Andrew Kolvet, was blunt about the reinstatement:
"Disney and ABC caving and allowing Kimmel back on the air is not surprising, but it's their mistake to make."
Kimmel did not moderate after returning. He quipped that First Lady Melania Trump "had a glow like an expectant widow", a remark made days before a third assassination attempt on President Trump. The president called for ABC to fire Kimmel in response.
Then came Rosie O'Donnell's four-night guest-hosting run on the show, which Page Six described as a ratings success. O'Donnell, a longtime adversary of President Trump, went viral for performing a parody of the traditional Irish song "Danny Boy" that she called "Donnie Boy," mocking the president on his own network's airwaves.
The day after O'Donnell's debut on "Kimmel," ABC and Disney sued the Federal Communications Commission, accusing the agency of attacking free speech by requesting to review ABC's broadcasting licenses earlier than usual. The lawsuit added a legal dimension to a fight that had already consumed the network's political capital and strained its relationship with affiliates and regulators alike.
Kimmel's exit will not be framed as a firing. Sources told Page Six the decision is unlikely to be directly tied to his antagonistic relationship with the Trump administration. Instead, insiders pointed to the broader cost-cutting under D'Amaro's leadership as the driving factor, a convenient explanation that allows both sides to avoid a public reckoning over whether the show's political posture made it unsustainable.
But the record of the past year speaks clearly enough. A host suspended for mischaracterizing a murder to score political points. An affiliate revolt that fractured the network's distribution. An FCC confrontation that ended in federal court. A first lady mocked days before an assassination attempt on her husband. And a guest host whose primary qualification appeared to be her willingness to taunt the sitting president.
ABC chose to absorb all of that. Now it is choosing not to absorb any more.
Networks can frame a cancellation however they like. But when a show spends its final years picking fights it cannot win, the audience, and the affiliates, eventually make the decision for them.
