ABC signs Jimmy Kimmel to a one-year contract extension, months after
temporary suspension
[December 09, 2025]
By DAVID BAUDER
President Donald Trump won't be getting his wish. ABC said Monday it has
signed late-night comic Jimmy Kimmel to a one-year contract extension.
Kimmel's previous, multiyear contract had been set to expire next May,
so the extension will keep him on the air until at least May 2027.
Kimmel's future looked questionable in September, when ABC suspended
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for remarks made following the assassination of
conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Following a public outcry, ABC
lifted the suspension, and Kimmel returned to the air with much stronger
ratings than he had before.
He continued his relentless joking at the president's expense, leading
Trump to urge the network to “get the bum off the air” in a social media
post last month. The post followed Kimmel's nearly 10-minute monologue
on Trump and the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Kimmel was even on Trump's mind Sunday as the president hosted the
Kennedy Center Honors in Washington.
“I've watched some of the people that host,” Trump said. “I've watched
some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible, and some of
these people, if I can't beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then
I don't think I should be president.”
Kimmel has hosted the Oscars four times, but he's never hosted the
Kennedy Center show.
Just last week, Kimmel was needling Trump on the president's approval
ratings. “There are gas stations on Yelp with higher approval ratings
than Trump right now,” he said.
Kimmel will be staying longer than late-night colleague Stephen Colbert
at CBS. The network announced this summer it was ending Colbert's show
next May for economic reasons, even though it is the top-rated network
show in late-night television.
ABC has aired Kimmel's late-night show since 2003, during a time of
upheaval in the industry. Like much of broadcast television, late-night
ratings are down. Viewers increasingly turn to watching monologues
online the day after they appear.
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Jimmy Kimmel, left, and Molly McNearney pose at The Hollywood
Reporter's Women in Entertainment Gala on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2024,
at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan
Strauss/Invision/AP)
 Most of Kimmel's recent renewals
have been multiyear extensions. There was no immediate word on whose
choice it was to extend his current contract by one year.
Bill Carter, author of “The Late Shift” and veteran chronicler of
late-night TV, cautioned against reading too much into the length of
the extension. Kimmel, at age 58, knows he's getting close to the
end of the line, Carter said, but when he leaves, he doesn't want it
to appear under pressure from Trump or anyone.
“He wants to make sure that it's on his terms,” Carter said.
Kimmel has become one of the leading voices resisting Trump. “I
think it's important for him and for ABC that they are standing up
for him,” Carter said.
Following Kirk’s killing, Kimmel was criticized for saying that “the
MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who
murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing
everything they can to score political points from it.” The Nexstar
and Sinclair television ownership groups said it would take Kimmel
off the air, leading to ABC's suspension.
When he returned to the air, Kimmel did not apologize for his
remarks, but he said he did not intend to blame any specific group
for Kirk's assassination. He said “it was never my intention to make
the light of the murder of a young man.”
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