PEOPLE reported in December 2025 that Kimmel signed a contract extension to keep the show on the air through 2027
Credit: Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Jimmy Kimmel Live! is not ending, an ABC spokesperson tells PEOPLE
- This comes after a report that the show would conclude after this current season
- The report of a conclusion comes nearly a year after the show was suspended following comments Kimmel made about right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination
Jimmy Kimmel Live! has not been canceled, ABC confirms to PEOPLE.
On Tuesday, Sept. 8, a report from Page Six stated that said the ABC late-night show would conclude after its current 24th season.
However, a spokesperson for ABC Entertainment denied the claims, saying, “This information is inaccurate – any reports about the future of the show at this point are purely speculative.”
Credit: Jimmy Kimmel Live/Youtube; Chip Somodevilla/Getty
The clarification comes nearly one year after Jimmy Kimmel and the series were put on an indefinite hiatus. In September 2025, ABC pulled the show from the air after Kimmel discussed the death of Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot on Sept. 10, 2025, while Kirk was at a speaking event at Utah Valley University. Before his comments on air, Kimmel had previously offered his condolences to Kirk’s family on social media.
Two days later, an ABC spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE that Live! was put on pause indefinitely, a move that followed Nexstar Media’s decision to preempt airings of the program and was praised by both Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr and President Donald Trump.
In a statement to PEOPLE at the time, Nexstar Media — which is the largest local broadcast and digital media company in the U.S. and owns more than 200 television stations in 116 markets — said in part that the company “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”
The statement came shortly after Nexstar’s announcement about plans to acquire rival broadcast company Tegna for $6.2 billion. The massive deal — which would further consolidate the local television landscape and put Nexstar in 80% of America’s TV-owning households, according to a press release — would require final approval from the Trump-controlled Federal Communications Commission.
A week after the late-night talk show’s suspension, the Walt Disney Company announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would resume on Tuesday, Sept. 23.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive,” the statement read, referring to Kimmel’s comments about Kirk’s assassination. “We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
Credit: Mindy Small/Getty; Roger Askew/Shutterstock
At the time, Nexstar and fellow broadcast company Sinclair — which boasts the nation’s largest ABC affiliate group — continued to preempt the program. They later allowed it back on air.
During Kimmel’s emotional opening monologue marking his return, he slammed Trump and the FCC while also crying speaking about Kirk’s widow and saying he didn’t intend to “make light” of his murder.
Three months later, on Dec. 8, 2025, Kimmel signed a contract extension to secure a spot for Live! to air through 2027.
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Since then, the late-night host has candidly discussed the events and his future on ABC. In a June 2026 interview with Vulture, he discussed increasing scrutiny he faces from the president. “One of the things we talked about when I first got suspended was that I can’t do this show if I’m going to be micromanaged,” Kimmel said.
He told the outlet that “there are far more people watching late-night TV than there ever were,” citing the “number of views me and my colleagues get online every day and add in our linear-television ratings.” Of the recent increase in attacks on the format, he said, “We’re not just dying of natural causes. We’re being poisoned.”
He continued, admitting, “Professionally, I have no idea what I’m going to do after this… Freedom is what I want more than anything. I want to be able to go fishing because the fishing’s good.”
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