GROK:
Annual Losses: Reports estimate Jimmy Kimmel Live! was losing ABC approximately $40–50 million per year, with production costs around $100 million annually. This mirrors losses for similar shows, like CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was canceled in July 2025 after reportedly losing $40 million yearly.
Declining Ad Revenue: Across ABC, CBS, and NBC late-night programs, advertiser spending on linear broadcasts fell to $221 million in 2024, down from $439 million in 2016. For Jimmy Kimmel Live!, year-to-date ad revenue through 2025 was under $70 million, despite serving over 200 brands (e.g., Allstate, McDonald’s). Kimmel himself has noted that early seasons of his show (with 5x current viewership) were already claimed to be unprofitable, and he disputes overly simplistic loss figures by highlighting overlooked affiliate fees worth hundreds of millions.
Viewership Drop: The show lost 72% of its key 18–49 demographic over the past decade, averaging 1.77 million total viewers in Q2 2025—far below peaks like Johnny Carson’s era. This has made it less appealing to advertisers, exacerbating losses since at least 2023.
Kimmel wife is also a writer and producer of the show
She may have written the “joke”