ABC's longest-running late-night host is reportedly on his way out the door, with sources saying Jimmy Kimmel's contract will not be renewed and his show will wrap for good in May 2027.

The upcoming season of Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be the show's last, Page Six reported, citing sources familiar with the situation. Kimmel has hosted the ABC late-night program since 2003, a run spanning 24 years and multiple network regimes. His contract is reportedly structured as a series of year-to-year deals, and the network is not extending the current one.

ABC pushed back on the report. A spokesperson for ABC Entertainment called the information "inaccurate," adding that "any reports about the future of the show at this point are purely speculative." But unnamed insiders painted a different picture, telling Page Six flatly that Kimmel's contract is not getting extended and the final season would wrap in May 2027.

Disney's new boss is cutting costs, not settling scores

Sources pointed to economics, not politics, as the driving force. Josh D'Amaro, described as the new Disney boss, has been offering veteran executives early retirement packages as part of a broader restructuring and cost-cutting push across the company. One source insisted D'Amaro is not folding under political pressure from the Trump administration over Kimmel's on-air provocations.

That framing deserves scrutiny. Kimmel has spent years turning his monologue into a nightly broadside against conservatives, and the show's political baggage has grown heavy. But the financial math may matter more than the politics. CBS ended Late Show with Stephen Colbert in May, and the New York Post reported that Colbert's show was losing $40 million per year before the network pulled the plug. If Kimmel's numbers looked anything like that, D'Amaro would not need a political reason to let the contract lapse.

The broader pattern is unmistakable. Two of the three major network late-night franchises are now gone or going, both hosted by men who made opposition to the right the centerpiece of their programs. The late-night model that bet everything on partisan political commentary is collapsing under its own weight.

Kimmel's on-air conduct drew fire from the White House

Whatever Disney says about the decision, Kimmel's conduct gave the network no shortage of headaches. In late April, Kimmel quipped that First Lady Melania Trump "had a glow like an expectant widow", a remark that landed days before a third assassination attempt on the president. President Trump called for ABC to fire Kimmel after the comment.

That was not an isolated incident. In September 2025, Kimmel made remarks about Charlie Kirk's assassination that prompted Disney, then under CEO Bob Iger, to temporarily yank the host off the air. The suspension was brief, but it signaled that even a sympathetic corporate parent had limits.

ABC and Disney, meanwhile, have been locked in their own fight with the federal government. The day after Rosie O'Donnell's debut as a guest host on Kimmel, ABC and Disney sued the Federal Communications Commission, accusing the agency of attacking the network's free speech by requesting to review ABC's broadcasting licenses earlier than the usual schedule.

O'Donnell's four-night guest-hosting stint itself became a flashpoint. She went viral for performing a parody of the traditional Irish song "Danny Boy", rewritten as "Donnie Boy", aimed squarely at President Trump. The network treated it as a ratings success, but the episode illustrated how thoroughly the show had abandoned entertainment in favor of political performance.

The FCC's scrutiny of ABC's licenses has created a tense backdrop for the network's programming decisions. ABC has already acknowledged that regulatory pressure forced changes elsewhere in its lineup, and the network has been slashing costs across its daytime programming as well.

Late night's partisan era is winding down fast

As Breitbart noted, the potential end of Jimmy Kimmel Live! follows Colbert's cancellation and suggests a broader collapse of the late-night television model, particularly the version that treated half the country as a punchline every night. The economics stopped working when the audience shrank to a narrow political niche.

Kimmel himself seemed aware of the moment on his season premiere. He opened with a quip: "Jimmy Kimmel and I have one thing in common. We both accomplished nothing all summer long." Whether that line was self-deprecation or something closer to resignation, it landed differently in light of the Page Six report.

Guest hosts have already been cycling through the show's chair. O'Donnell's stint drew attention, but other fill-ins have created their own controversy. Jelly Roll's guest-hosting appearance drew backlash for anti-Trump jokes, and the country artist later lost a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser gig as a direct consequence. The show has become a place where careers go to pick fights, and pay for them.

ABC's official denial leaves room for the network to reverse course or announce a different timeline. But the sourcing from Page Six is specific: the contract is not being extended, and May 2027 is the end. Several open questions remain, the precise terms of Kimmel's deal, the financial performance of the show, and whether ABC plans to replace it with another late-night program or abandon the format entirely.

For 24 years, Jimmy Kimmel had a platform. He chose to spend the last several of them lecturing the audience that stuck around. Now the platform is going away, and the audience left a long time ago.