Jimmy Kimmel is dominating the late-night TV ratings despite Donald Trump and his wife’s gripes with the host.
According to Variety, Kimmel, who returned from his summer hiatus this month, is drawing far more viewers than any other late-night show, including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and The Late Show replacement, Comics Unleashed. Nielsen’s Live + Same Day Big Data Plus Panel ratings reveal Kimmel averaged 2.29 million total viewers during broadcast network premiere week starting Sept. 21.
During the 11:35 p.m. hour that same week, The Tonight Show drew just 1.3 million total viewers, and Byron Allen’s leased time on CBS earned 704,000 for the first half hour and 521,000 for his second half hour.
Kimmel’s guests included Woody Harrelson, Jamie Foxx, Ke Huy Quan, and Ben Affleck. Musical guests included Greta Van Fleet and fellow Trump foe Brandi Carlile.
The major win comes after ABC denied the explosive allegations that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will end next year. The rumors began when a source claimed to Page Six that Kimmel’s “contract is not getting extended.” ABC called the report “inaccurate” in a statement to the Daily Beast. “Any reports about the future of the show at this point are purely speculative,” they added.
Trump, 80, made Kimmel his top target after his former number one foe, Stephen Colbert, was booted off CBS. Kimmel was indefinitely suspended last September, following comments that stoked MAGA’s ire. He returned to air after only six days, to Trump’s chagrin.
In April, a joke the host made ahead of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner earned him a scathing rebuke from First Lady Melania Trump, 56, who declared that ABC should “take a stand” and fire him.
“How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community?” she wrote in a post on X.
Trump added, after calling for Kimmel’s firing just months before, “I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said, but this is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Despite the rumors and White House targeting, Kimmel now officially hosts the most-watched late-night show.
