Late-night talk shows used to be a unifying force in American television. Millions and millions of people tuned in to watch Johnny Carson poke fun at everyone, identify and support up-and-coming comics, entertain with clever and timeless skits, bring on musical guests and tell jokes.
Those days are long, long gone.
Late-night talk shows are now yet another vehicle for left-wing political activism. Hosts like Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver and Seth Meyers have all but abandoned any pretense of comedy in favor of yet another lecture on their ideological preferences. As a result, despite outsized salaries, ratings have dropped dramatically, and these shows are less important than they've ever been.
That led to the cancellation of "Late Night with Stephen Colbert" after years of losing money, with CBS saying they were losing $40 million a year to do a less entertaining version of an MSNBC show. Naturally, the few devoted left-wing viewers of the Colbert show were furious. And that includes Jimmy Kimmel himself.
Stephen Colbert hosts The Late Show with guests Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, and Seth Meyers during the May 11, 2026, episode in New York. (Scott Kowalchyk/CBS)
DEMOCRATS FAWN OVER STEPHEN COLBERT FOR HOLDING 'TRUTH TO POWER' AFTER CBS CANCELS SHOW
Kimmel, in a new interview with Vulture, explained how "defeated" he felt when he heard that Colbert's show was being taken off the air.
"I feel a little bit defeated about it," he said in the interview. "In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m looking at my own future."
Kimmel, of course, blamed President Donald Trump for the show's cancellation, and cast doubt on CBS' statement that Colbert's show was losing a fortune. His proof? That in 2023, the New York Times reported that Colbert turned down a longer, five-year contract in favor of three. To him, that implies the show wasn't losing money for the network.
"Am I to believe that over the course of those two years, they suddenly started losing $40 million a year?" he said. "These are just made-up numbers."
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel speaks onstage during the Bloomberg Screentime event in Los Angeles, California, on Oct. 8. (Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg)
As for Trump, Kimmel claims he feels "sorry" for the President of the United States.
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"I feel sorry for him," he claimed. "He obviously didn’t get hugged a lot." Says the man who joked about Melania Trump having the "glow like an expectant widow."
Kimmel saying he felt "defeated" by the Colbert show cancellation gives the game away. These aren't meant to be comedy programs to entertain people, they're part of a political project. Opposition to the right, group therapy for the "resistance" left.
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And Kimmel, who has never been accused of thoughtfulness or thoroughness, claiming that Colbert's contract offer proves something is once again wrong. That offer would have been made long before a new regime headed by David Ellison took over at CBS. A regime that does not view losing money in service of the Democratic Party as a noble goal. For most in entertainment, it doesn't matter how well a show or movie performs as long as it carries the correct ideological outputs. Just look at Disney's last four to five years of film and television releases.
Stephen Colbert and guest Jimmy Kimmel appear during The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Sept. 30, 2025, in New York. (Scott Kowalchyk/CBS)
The issue with Kimmel, and Colbert of course, is that over time, they lost whatever infinitesimal humor they may once have had. They are not funny. Their shows are not funny. Nobody cares about their skits or "jokes" or monologue’s. Random YouTubers routinely get millions more views than they do. And they're either completely clueless as to why, or unable to fix it. That's on them, not us.
Ian Miller is a writer at OutKick.
