Director Digital News
Jimmy Kimmel predicts the demise of struggling late-night television
Jimmy Kimmel has been hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for 21 years, but he’s not sure how much longer a late-night talk show will last. On the latest episode of Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch and Doug Hendrickson’s “Politickin'” podcast, Kimmel looked to the future, saying, “I don’t know if there will be late-night network television shows in 10 years.”
"There might be one, but there won't be many," he added. "There's a lot to watch and now people can watch anything at any time, they have all these streaming services. It used to be that Johnny Carson was the only thing on TV at 11:30 so everyone would watch it and then David Letterman would be on after Johnny so people would watch those two shows, but now there are so many options."
Not only are there so many options, but Kimmel also suggested that streaming platforms like YouTube and social media channels that break up late-night episodes into clips you can watch after the broadcast have also limited the urgency of watching live.
