Jimmy Kimmel hosted President Donald Trump on his shown years ago. Trump celebrated the comedian’s suspension following remarks he made about Charlie Kirk’s death.
Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
Jimmy Kimmel ratings over the years have dropped—which hardly makes him unique or says anything about his popularity. The comedian, whose late-night Jimmy Kimmel Live! show was suspended by ABC earlier this week following fallout surrounding his comments about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, experienced the same decline in viewership suffered by virtually everything on television.
And actually, the most recent round of numbers for Kimmel were positive. He moved slightly ahead of rival The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which CBS recently cancelled, among adults ages 18-49 – the key demographic for advertisers. They base their ad sales on how many viewers shows pull in that group.
Kimmel averaged 220,000 adults 18-49 during the second quarter (three months ended June 30), according to data from Nielsen. That was 1,000 more than Colbert and marked Kimmel’s strongest performance with the demo in a year.
By comparison, NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon averaged 157,000 in that time, well behind Kimmel and Colbert.
A ratings rise of any kind is notable in 2025. Changes in viewing patterns, with more people now watching streaming video than traditional television, have cratered ratings for virtually every show on television. Even the most popular franchises, like NCIS and Law & Order, have seen ratings drop precipitously from a decade ago—and even more from the 2000s, when Kimmel’s show debuted.
Jimmy Kimmel Ratings Over The Years Have Fallen
So it’s no surprise that Jimmy Kimmel ratings have dropped. During second quarter, he averaged 1.77 million total viewers (his strength has always been 18-49s). That’s down quite a bit from 2015, when Colbert joined the late-night lineup and Nielsen says Kimmel averaged 2.4 million total viewers.
But again, every show is down since then. And there are many different ways to spin those numbers, as headlines from all manner of politically affiliated media have done since Kimmel’s suspension. You can look at second quarter and say he was up or look at the long game and say he was down.
On YouTube, where Kimmel’s channel has more than 20 million subscribers, his three most recent videos have all garnered more than 3 million views, suggesting a wider audience than on TV—again, this doesn’t make him special in the current TV landscape with viewers migrating online.
Jimmy Kimmel ratings have dropped over the years, but the comedian finished first among adults 18-49 during second quarter of this year.
Getty Images for Easterseals
Jimmy Kimmel Ratings Weren’t The Real Issue: Trump, Nextstar and Disney Complications
ABC did not even try to pretend it was pulling Kimmel for any reason other than the financial impact and backlash from its affiliates, including owner Nextstar, which owns more than two dozen ABC stations and is looking for regulatory approval for a $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna. President Donald Trump suggested that the Federal Communications Commission could even revoke TV b