The Free Market May Sack Kimmel Again

Authored by Alex Rosado via RealClearPolitics.com,

Last month, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” reemerged from cancellation with a ratings jump and social momentum. His midnight honeymoon, however, is already over.

Kimmel made incendiary comments over free speech champion Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September, slamming President Trump’s leadership and comparing his grief to “a four-year-old mourning a goldfish.” With his ratings nosediving for months, what little audience remained turned off their TV sets, prompting Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcasting to pull him from ABC station affiliates. Jimmy raged and threatened to cut ties with ABC forever. But just days later, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” returned, and the late-night host issued an apology that attracted over 6 million viewers, the most in series history, even if many felt it was insincere.

Kimmel had renewed interest and lightning in a bottle. But he squandered it by refusing to change the same act that got him booted in the first place. 

By continuing to politicize every current event, Kimmel has impressively lost 85% of his post-suspension bounce in just a few weeks among key demographics. With ratings hovering around 1.7 million viewers, his collapse in viewership is now lower than it was pre-suspension.

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” wasn’t cancelled because of government “crackdowns” on free speech, as some proclaimed, but because consumers stopped valuing Kimmel’s program. His show was incongruous with their viewing habits and the national conversation, and it may face similar and necessary repercussions again.

American politics has long been fused with entertainment, and people are getting tired of it. The abundance of television shows like “South Park,” popular music, and celebrities lampooning or critiquing current events has made politics inescapable. Pew Research Center (PRC) found that almost two-thirds of Americans feel exhausted when thinking about politics. More in Common’s Hidden Tribe report found that most Americans are frustrated by division and tribalism, wanting officials to heal, not inflame, culture wars.

Yet, there’s political incentive among news outlets and commentary shows to feed viewers ideologically driven content. In 2024, Stanford University found that consumers, regardless of their educational or political background, are more likely to engage with media that aligns with their ideology rather than factual reporting. Ten percent of Americans got their news from “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Twenty-one percent of young Americans got it from “The Daily Show.”

Viewers may say they want these programs’ priorities to change, but traditional media thrives on the mass confirmation bias they ingrain in consumers. 

It’s a vicious cycle that polarized the American populace while leaving elitist and leftist “comedians” untouched – until recently.

In July, Stephen Colbert announced his tenured and politically charged show would leave the airwaves in 2026. CBS explained that production expenses were costing the company tens of millions of dollars annually, and competition from social media and streaming has pulled customer bases away from television. Kimmel and Hollywood dashed these claims, but the evidence counters their disbelief. 

Deloitte’s 2025 media consumption survey revealed only 49% of consumers have cable or satellite TV subscriptions – down from 63% three years ago – a mass departure partially driven by a market oversaturated with political content. An observed desire for hosts to separate politics from programming has skyrocketed the demand and consumption for alternative media, which they find more trustworthy. After being infested with grievance and division for years, the media consumer base shifted its preferences, and Colbert’s rating consequently tanked. Nixing Colbert was a business response to a format and an ideology that failed to captivate audiences.

Kimmel has no respect for the new public sentiment and is doubling down on a losing formula. Quickly reprising his role as an instigator, he’s bashing the president’s intelligence, blasting Trump’s hardline approach to crime and Antifa, and blaming critics for “mischaractiz[ing]” his Kirk comments. He hailed himself as “more popular than the president of the United States” after the release of a recent YouGov poll, turning an earnest compliment into another desperate zinger. Kimmel has no interest in comforting the public interest or maintaining the illusion that his show is political entertainment, and the general consensus is that he hasn’t changed. No wonder audiences are fleeing.

Who knows how long “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will stay on air. He survived what many believe was a top-down political mandate, but one thing is certain: Local broadcasters and network owners are responsive to community standards, tastes, and free-market realities. The potent and corrective capacity of everyday consumers is what drives TV. Creators can offer their content, but nobody is entitled to consumers. In an industry of communication and credibility, Kimmel willingly strayed from both, and that’s at least part of what cost him his job the first time. The free market may strike twice if Kimmel’s convictions continue to define his program.