Greg Gutfeld is beating every one of them in the ratings.
That number has been living rent-free in late-night's head for two years – and on Monday, Kimmel finally said the quiet part out loud.
And now he wants someone to explain why his format has to justify its own existence.
The Reunion Nobody Asked For
Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, and John Oliver all showed up on The Late Show Monday to celebrate Stephen Colbert's final days on the air – and the conversation quickly turned to the question none of them wanted to answer.
Why does late-night television have to make a case for its own survival?
"Why should you have to defend late-night?" Kimmel asked Colbert. "Why should that question even be asked? Like Ryan Seacrest doesn't get asked about Wheel of Fortune or whatever the hell he's hosting."
Here's why the question gets asked, Jimmy: because your shows lost 70 to 80 percent of their audience since 2015.
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Because ad revenue for network late-night dropped from $439 million in 2018 to $220 million last year – half the market, gone in six years.
Because The Late Show was bleeding $40 million annually before CBS finally pulled the plug.
Because Greg Gutfeld is averaging 3.2 million viewers while Kimmel pulls 1.6 million.
Ryan Seacrest doesn't have to defend Wheel of Fortune because Wheel of Fortune still has an audience.
The Numbers They Won't Say Out Loud
Kimmel told the audience Monday that more people are watching late-night now than during the Johnny Carson era – they just watch on YouTube.
That argument is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Yes, late-night clips rack up views online.
No, that does not pay the bills.
Industry analysts have been clear: by 2023, virtually no traditional late-night show was turning a profit, and losses have widened every year since.
CBS didn't cancel Colbert because his YouTube numbers were soft.
CBS canceled Colbert because his show was losing $40 million a year and the traditional broadcast advertising market that once supported it has been cut in half.
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Kimmel's answer to that reality was to take a shot at CBS: "Why aren't you people canceling Paramount+? Because you didn't have it in the first place?"
The audience laughed.
The accountants did not.
What Colbert Actually Believes
Colbert has been more direct about his cancellation than his colleagues were willing to be Monday night.
In a Hollywood Reporter interview, he said the political explanation is the most likely one – even without a smoking gun.
He pointed to Paramount's $16 million settlement with President Trump over a 60 Minutes dispute, the FCC approval of Skydance's $8 billion Paramount takeover, and the network's decision to block his interview with a Democrat Senate candidate – a corporation methodically staying in good graces with a White House that controls its regulatory future.
"There are many people who believe there was another reason," Colbert told the Hollywood Reporter. "And, as I said in the most measured tones I could muster, there is a reason why people believe that."
Trump, for his part, celebrated on Truth Social.
"I absolutely love that Colbert got fired," the president wrote. "His talent was even less than his ratings."
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That's not wrong on either count.
The Real Story These Five Men Won't Tell
Five late-night hosts sat in a circle Monday night and talked about the future of their format like it was still 2012.
None of them mentioned Gutfeld.
None of them mentioned that the one late-night show actually growing its audience – up 31.5 percent in total viewers in 2025 – is the one hosted by a conservative comedian on Fox News.
None of them connected the obvious dots: that when you spend ten years telling half of America it's stupid, racist, and wrong every single night, that half of America eventually stops watching.
Late-night television didn't lose its audience to streaming.
It lost its audience to alienation.
Johnny Carson understood something these five men never figured out: you can't spend every night mocking the president and call it comedy.
Carson was beloved by Democrats and Republicans alike because he understood that a late-night host's job is to be the country's living room – not its prosecutor.
Colbert's final show is May 21.
The format he and Kimmel built – smug, relentlessly partisan, openly contemptuous of the Americans who don't share their politics – is dying with it.
And Gutfeld is still adding viewers.
Sources:
- Hanna Panreck, "Jimmy Kimmel erupts over questions about late-night TV's relevance in star-studded 'Late Show' episode," Fox News, May 12, 2026.
- "2025 Ratings: Late-Night TV's Biggest Winners and Losers," LateNighter, January 13, 2026.
- "Is YouTube the Future of Late Night TV?" Pixability, August 4, 2025.
- "Late-Night Broadcast TV Ratings and Ad Revenue Declining," Media Confidential, September 22, 2025.
- "FCC Chair Brendan Carr Wades Into Late-Night Fight After 'Late Show' Axe," Deadline, July 2025.