ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel for joking about Charlie Kirk's assassin.
Now he's back – and he just told Vulture he's already counting down to the next time he crosses a line.
What he said should end the argument about whether this man belongs on television.
The Numbers ABC Doesn't Want to Say Out Loud
Jimmy Kimmel Live! lost 72% of its advertiser-coveted demo over the past decade.
Greg Gutfeld – on a cable channel that costs extra – averaged 3.3 million viewers in 2025.
Kimmel averaged 1.6 million.
That's not a trend.
That's a verdict.
ABC didn't give Kimmel the usual three-year contract renewal this cycle.
He got one year.
He told Vulture he accepted it because "everything is so tumultuous" – which is the polite version of "I know they're looking for the exit."
https://twitter.com/HQNewsNow/status/2061460609359659506?s=20
Gutfeld grew 21% in 2025 and kept growing in March 2026 while Kimmel declined.
The scoreboard is what it is.
What Kimmel Actually Said to Vulture
He's worried about the next time he crosses a line – not regretful about the last time.
"What if I actually do do something wrong?" he told Vulture. "I mean, that's inevitable."
He's not promising to do better.
He's telling you he already knows he'll blow it again – and he's hoping the facts are on his side when he does.
That's the mindset of a man who made a joke about a murder and called it commentary.
He also dismissed CBS's claimed $40 million annual loss on the Colbert cancellation as "just made-up numbers" – which is either a man defending his industry or a man watching his own future get canceled in slow motion.
Kimmel told Vulture he feels "defeated."
He said late-night is "being poisoned."
The poison, in his telling, is an unfair media environment closing in on brave truth-tellers.
The actual poison is that half of America stopped finding him funny around 2015 and he never noticed.
The Colbert Lesson He Won't Learn
Stephen Colbert's Late Show was the top-rated broadcast late-night show in America when CBS pulled the plug.
Colbert had just called Paramount's $16 million Trump settlement "a big fat bribe" on air.
Days later, he was gone.
CBS called it a financial decision.
Kimmel told Vulture: "In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm looking at my own future."
He sees it.
He just won't say the obvious thing – that a decade of telling half the country they were stupid for supporting Trump has a business cost, and that cost is now coming due.
Gutfeld built the most-watched late-night audience in America without a single network pushing him.
He did it by being funny.
Kimmel can feel defeated all he wants.
The audience already made its choice.
Sources:
- Bobby Burack, "Melania Is Right, Jimmy Kimmel Shouldn't Have His Show Anymore," OutKick/Fox News, April 27, 2026.
- Brian Flood, "ABC's 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' Hemorrhaged Viewers Over Past Decade, Lost 72% Among Key Demo," Fox News, September 18, 2025.
- Brian Flood, "Trump Says Kimmel Decision Was About Bad Ratings in Addition to Charlie Kirk Remarks," Fox News, September 18, 2025.
- "CBS Cancels Stephen Colbert's Late-Night Show for 'Financial Reasons,'" Fox News, July 2025.
- LateNighter, "Here Are Final Late Night Ratings for Q1 2026," April 13, 2026.
- LateNighter, "Kimmel, Colbert, Gutfeld and More Late-Night Ratings Revealed," January 13, 2026.