Disney Executive Sidesteps Questions on Jimmy Kimmel's Future

Disney's top content executive, Dana Walden, avoided definitively answering questions about the long-term future of Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show on ABC. Walden, president and chief creative officer for The Walt Disney Company, appeared at the Bloomberg Screentime summit where she was asked if Kimmel would host his show a year from now.

"Well, I'm certainly not going to make that announcement with you here today," Walden responded with a grin, according to Fox News. She acknowledged the challenges facing the late-night television landscape, noting that while Kimmel's ratings have increased, they are relative to a shrinking broadcast audience. Walden also pointed to the significant viewership of show clips on platforms like YouTube and on-demand services, which do not represent a "lucrative opportunity for a very premium talk show."

"We're trying to make sense of the business while also honoring a deep partnership," Walden stated. "I love Jimmy. We have a great friendship. He's close to a number of the people at Disney. And again, we're trying to work through it and make sense of both what does Jimmy want, what's the right thing to do and what's right thing for our business."

Unconfirmed speculation suggests that the current season of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" could be its last, concluding in 2027. This comes after a period of controversy for Kimmel, including a brief suspension of his show in September 2025 after he made comments about the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. He also had public exchanges with the White House over jokes about first lady Melania Trump.

At the same summit, comedian Conan O'Brien reflected on the changing dynamics of late-night television. "I saw over my 17 years with NBC... I started to see, oh, this is really changing. This is really changing," O'Brien said. He described a push for cost-consciousness in the industry, paralleling the decline of the U.S. auto industry to increased competition from international manufacturers. O'Brien, who transitioned to podcasting after his TBS show ended, noted that late-night programming has become more fragmented with the rise of alternative platforms.

This uncertainty for Kimmel follows recent shifts in late-night programming. CBS recently replaced "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" with Byron Allen's syndicated talk show "Comics Unleashed." While "Comics Unleashed" draws a smaller viewership, it is reportedly expected to be profitable for CBS due to significantly reduced costs compared to Colbert's show, which was said to be losing the network $40 million annually on a budget of $100 million per season.