Jimmy Kimmel Thinks 'A Lot' About How Long He Will Remain on Late Night TV

Jimmy Kimmel admitted he has been “dodging the question” about his future on late night TV.

While speaking to reporters at the 2025 Creative Arts Emmys on Sunday, September 7, Kimmel, 57, revealed he doesn’t know how long he will keep hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC.

“I’m not prepared to answer that question, but it is something that I think about a lot and things have changed a lot over the last few years,” Kimmel, who won for Outstanding Host for a Game Show for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, told IndieWire. “Each day is a new adventure and I kind of take them as they come.”

Kimmel asked if that was “a good way” to avoid directly answering the question. He previously confessed to the Los Angeles Times in 2024 that retirement has been on his mind, saying, “I think this is my final contract.”

“I hate to even say it, because everyone’s laughing at me now — each time I think that, and then it turns out to be not the case,” he added at the time. “I still have a little more than two years left on my contract, and that seems pretty good. That seems like enough.”

Kimmel’s comments about the future of Jimmy Kimmel Live! comes two months after CBS shocked the late night TV world when it canceled Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show.

“Before we start the show I want to let you know something that I found out just last night. Next year will be our last season,” Colbert, 61, announced during a taping as the audience booed. “I share your feelings. It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”

He continued: “I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners. … And I’m grateful to the audience, you, who have joined us every night, in here, out there and all around the world.”

Colbert confirmed at the time that CBS “will be ending The Late Show” in May 2026, but a specific date for the final episode has yet to be announced. CBS executives, meanwhile, released a statement addressing their decision, claiming it was not “related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,” but was instead due to finances.

Kimmel, meanwhile, spoke out about the state of late night TV.

“Network television is declining. There’s no question about that. But more people are watching late night television than ever before — and I include Johnny Carson in that. People may find that shocking,” he told Variety one month later. “When Carson was at his peak, he was getting around 9 million viewers a night. That’s huge. Of course, the lead-in shows were getting 30 and 40 million, which was a big part of it. But people are still watching late night — just in different places. Our monologues get between 2 and 5 million views, sometimes more, every night.”

Kimmel denied that late night shows are “a rotting corpse,” instead stating, “It most certainly is not.”

“It just doesn’t add up,” he said of CBS’ decision to cancel its late night program.“It’s a great story line … but it’s simply not true.” He also praised Colbert for hosting The Late Show since 2015.

“He’s not just a sweet man. He is very moral — he’s a very ethical person,” Kimmel said. “He is the salt of the earth. He is a humble person and an extremely smart person. I hope that whatever he does next is even more powerful than what he’d been doing. And I think that’s very possible.”