Talk about a sad song. Jimmy Kimmel’s new year on TV will feature about half the music.
Moving forward, Jimmy Kimmel Live! will only host musical guests twice a week, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter, though Deadline suggests that that amount is “not a hard number.”
Music has been a particularly integral part of Kimmel’s show since its debut in 2003, with Kimmel typically welcoming musical guests most nights of his usual four-show week. According to THR, JKL music producer Jim Pitt signaled the change to people in the industry in recent weeks.
The cutback comes not long after Kimmel signed a new contract with ABC that will keep JKL on the air for one more season—widely believed to be his last. (Terms of that deal were not disclosed.) But the change also comes as late-night faces ever-increasing budget cuts, which have recently positioned musical segments at the front of the chopping block.
NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, for one, has been devoid of any live music since the departure of The 8G Band in August 2024 due to budget cuts. The show’s music department left along with the band—meaning the show lost not only the house band but any musical guests as well. Just last month, Meyers hosted the closest thing to a formal musical segment since that change: guest Brad Paisley performing a new comedic holiday song… from the couch.
Over on The Late Show, Stephen Colbert typically hosts one to two musical guests per week.
Last year, Pitt and fellow JKL music booker Mac Burrus reflected on the decline of music in late-night in an interview with Consequence, which reported a drop of roughly 600 fewer music bookings annually between 2013 and 2023.
“ I think Colbert is down to one a week, and Seth is not doing music anymore,” Pitt said at the time. “Mac and I, because it’s our department, feel very fortunate that Jimmy is such a supporter in the music space.”
JKL’s reduction will leave The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon as the only late-night show that programs musical performances all four nights of the week, excepting other occasional performance guests like comedians. But Fallon’s show, too, has been forced to make budget cuts in recent years. In the fall of 2024, The Tonight Show became the last network late-night show to reduce its output of new episodes from five to four per week.
Despite the change, Jimmy Kimmel Live! is set to feature three musical guests this week—including the singing voices of HUNTR/X from KPop Demon Hunters—EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, and REI AMI—on Thursday, January 8. Their performance on Fallon’s Tonight Show in October soared to become the most-viewed late-night clip of 2025.
So looks like this is what Kimmel meant when he talked about the future of late night~
Well at least he’s not completely taking away the platform for musical guests, ESPECIALLY the Cletones even after Cleto’s passing. It’s not like Seth w/his show completely stripping any presence of music from his show~
And honestly, as someone who has recently joined the Kimmel bandwagon, I would hardly see any differences with this change in the show. Kimmel can still welcome musical guests while taunting the President during his monologues and his guest interviews~
And partisan twerps will continue to insist there’s no way these late-night shows are losing millions every year despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
Kimmel should open up a fake Somali daycare center if he’s hard up for cash.
Sure he would be indicted like Tampon Tim Walz is about to be, but his talk show is already losing tens of millions per year.
Then why did Tampon Tim stop running for re-election and end his 2028 presidential run?
Heck, two-thirds of his speech yesterday was referencing the Somali fraud scandal.
And what a scandal…$20 billion of fraud in order for Somalis to buy Porsches and mansions via cash.
According to Jimmy Kimmel logic, those two were assassinated by nothing other than left-wing kooks.
We all saw Tim Walz physically abuse his mentally deficient son last year at the DNC convention.
Tampon Tim is now on the verge of being indicted for the Somali scandal…terrible pick-six by Tampon Tim.
…..why are you dragging Tim Walz into this conversation? About Kimmel scaling back musical guests? Hasn’t Walz been through enough even after his decision?
I still think you’re an offshore troll bot taunting fans of late night, even if this format of television is getting dragged by all sides. Who are you gonna taunt and jeer next once this format is gone?
What’s Tampon Tim been through apart from helping defraud the Minnesota welfare system?
The point is that Kimmel wouldn’t be making these cost reductions if his crappy show wasn’t losing tens of millions per year, which some people actually deny.
You’ve already been told that your accusations against Tim Walz are unfounded, and you beta cucks haven’t provided any single solitary proof of any wrongdoing! As usual, you treasonous fuck holes are desperately trying to change the subject of your criminal toddler Drumpf, who’s trying to distract the world from the Epstein files and from ripping apart millions of Americans health care!
You just get more and more ridiculously desperate everytime you post, Mucky Boy! Do grow the fuck up, and stop embarrassing your trailer park!
Did you see Tampon Tim’s meltdown just now? Admits there was massive fraud and he’s the one responsible, and admits he’s about to be indicted.
Tampon Tim said he’s running for re-election, gets exposed for his $20 billion Somali fraud, and now drops out.
Tampon Tim in jail…so sad.
And there’s nothing that states he was frauding the people of Minnesota! And the only outburst he made was directed at Drumpf for using his state to distract people from the Epstein files, and that he kicked millions out of their health care coverage in order to hide the Epstein files from the public!
Once again, you lie Mucky Boy!
You’re long overdue for a trip to the woodshed, boy!
Where do you get this notion that Walz abused his son publicly? There’s no evidence of such an act whatsoever! And what a fucking turd you are to call Gus mentally deficient! No doubt you were a fucking stupid bully growing up, because you still act like one!
As usual, you stupid ignorant MAGA chuds are lying and making shit up, like Hillary’s emails and Hunter’s laptop, because your side thinks they do no wrong, while you project your sins and crimes onto Democrats, like Walz, because you can’t think for yourselves! You need your criminal toddler daddy Drumpf to tell you what to do because you’re all mindless sheep!
You’ve done nothing but talk inside your ass, as usual, Muck Boy!
You missed the part where Tampon Tim almost threw out his son’s mark when he yanked him on the stage at the DNC Convention?
Did you see Tampon Tim’s meltdown just now? Admits there was massive fraud and he’s the one responsible, and admits he’s about to be indicted.
Because there’s no there there there, you lying loser!
But funny how all of a sudden, when it’s been well over a year since November 2024, you’re bringing up Tim Walz abusing his son out of the blue, because you so badly want to paint a Democrat as a bad guy for your treasonous pedophile, Drumpf!
You are so fucking lame and desperate, Mucky Boy! You really need to stick yourr ugly face back up your fat ass, where it belongs! No one wants to see a loser, like you!
Billions of people saw Tampon Tim abuse his poor son at the DNC Convention in 2024.
He should be indicted for that along with the $20 billion in Somali fraud!
Because, as always, you’re a lying piece of shit, boy!
I love JKL. I have been in the studio audience 3 times. I have gotten so many people to watch the show just by word of mouth. We all find it interesting, comedic, and controversial.