Jimmy Kimmel has been hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for 21 years and counting, but he’s not really sure how long any late-night talk show will last. On a recent episode of Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch and Doug Hendrickson’s “Politician” podcast, Kimmel looked to the future, saying, “I don’t know if there will be any late-night network TV shows in 10 years.”
“There might be one show, but there won’t be a lot of shows. There’s a lot to watch and now people can watch anything at any time, they have all these services. Before, Johnny Carson was the only show at 11:30 p.m., so everyone was watching, and then David Letterman came on after Johnny, so people were watching those two shows, but now there are a lot of options.”
Not only are there more options, Kimmel claimed that streaming platforms like YouTube and social media channels that break up late-night episodes into clips to watch after the episode airs have also reduced the urgency to watch live.
“Perhaps most importantly, people can easily watch your monologue online the next day, eliminating the need to watch it when it’s on the air,” he said. “Once people stop watching it when it’s on the air, the networks will stop paying for it to be produced.”
Whenever Kimmel finishes broadcasting and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” ends, he's fully aware that he'll have a hard time transitioning to whatever concert comes next.
“I’m going to have a hard time when it’s over. It worries me,” he said. “That’s part of the reason I keep going. Every time, I think, ‘This is going to be my last contract,’ and then I end up signing another one, because I dread that day, that Monday after my last show, where it’s like, ‘OK, now what am I going to do?’ There’s not a whole lot of options for late-night hosts after the shows are over. People think of you as a late-night talk show host, it’s not like you’re going to suddenly start starring in movies.”
Kimmel was on a summer hiatus from hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” The show has had guest hosts over the summer months, including Kathryn Hahn and Kumail Nanjiani, and Kimmel is expected to return in the fall.
