ABC Bets on Heat: Jimmy Kimmel Extended Through 2027 After Ratings Rebound
ABC has signed Jimmy Kimmel to a one-year extension, keeping Jimmy Kimmel Live! on the air through at least May 2027. The move follows a brief suspension in September over on-air remarks that sparked a public backlash; after the pause was lifted, Kimmel returned to stronger ratings and maintained his pointed political humor, including fresh jabs at Donald Trump, who publicly urged ABC to “get the bum off the air.” The key takeaway here: ABC is prioritizing audience momentum and shareable moments over the risk of blowback, especially as late-night increasingly functions as a clip factory for social feeds.
What this means for creators and social teams: topical edge still travels, but only when it aligns with audience expectations and a publisher’s risk tolerance. Expect tighter coordination between broadcast rooms and social desks to spin monologues and bits into platform-native clips within minutes. Captioning, packaging, and SEO around news cycles will matter more than ever. Worth noting for brands: adjacency becomes a sharper calculus. Polarizing content can deliver outsized impressions, but you’ll want granular controls (list exclusions, sentiment monitoring, rapid creative swaps) to manage volatility without forfeiting scale.
The bigger picture: while ABC is doubling down on a proven late-night engine, CBS has reportedly charted a different course with plans to wind down Stephen Colbert’s show next May for cost reasons despite strong ratings. That divergence underscores a broader shift: linear ratings aren’t the only KPI-digital clip performance, syndication value, and production economics increasingly decide renewals. For agencies and marketers, this means more fragmented late-night inventory, faster turnaround on reactive creative, and a premium on talent who can consistently generate cross-platform moments without brand safety surprises. The playbook now is less “go viral” and more “be reliably topical”-and have a crisis plan ready just in case.