Dana Walden isn’t ready to say Jimmy Kimmel will still be hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! a year from now—and on Thursday, she explained why.
Appearing at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference in Los Angeles, Disney’s president and chief creative officer was asked by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw whether Kimmel would still be hosting his ABC late-night show next year.
“Well, I’m certainly not gonna make that announcement with you here today,” Walden replied.
Shaw followed up more pointedly: Why isn’t renewing Kimmel a “no-brainer,” given that his ratings are up and he has emerged as a prominent voice in the debate over free speech?
“That’s a good question,” Walden said. “And the truth is, it’s a very challenging day part, late night.”
“That’s not to say that Jimmy is not doing a phenomenal job, and his ratings are up,” she continued, “but they’re up relative to a smaller audience that’s watching late night on broadcast television.”
Walden also pointed to the disconnect between the reach Kimmel generates online and the money that reach brings in.
“Obviously, there’s a YouTube channel. Millions of people are watching on demand parts of that show,” she said. “That is not a lucrative opportunity for a very premium talk show.”
Her comments offered Disney’s first public explanation of the business considerations hanging over Kimmel’s ongoing contract talks with ABC. Kimmel’s current deal runs through May 2027. Last month, Puck’s Matt Belloni reported that Kimmel had told Disney/ABC he wanted to return for another season and that both sides were saying they wanted to make a deal. But ABC was also seeking significant budget cuts, with one source estimating the target at roughly 20 percent.
That tracks with the broader economics Walden described Thursday. Despite Kimmel’s ratings gains and substantial digital audience, the traditional late-night business has been squeezed by a shrinking linear audience and declining advertising revenue. According to ad-tracking firm Guideline, spending on linear advertising across ABC, CBS, and NBC’s late-night programming fell from $439 million in 2018 to $221 million in 2024—a decline of nearly 50 percent.
Still, Walden made clear that the talks are about more than a spreadsheet.
“We’re trying to make sense of the business while also honoring a deep partnership,” she said. “I love Jimmy. We have a great friendship. He’s close to a number of the people at Disney.”
“And again,” Walden added, “we’re trying to work through it and make sense of both what does Jimmy want, what’s the right thing to do, and what’s the right thing for our business.”
As Howard Stern suggested earlier this week when he guested on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Disney is likely also weighing the potential backlash of letting Kimmel go. The host’s brief suspension last year triggered a swift response from viewers and industry figures, with many canceling Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions and others threatening to boycott Disney Parks.
