Kimmel informed his staff of the renewal during a Monday meeting, framing it as a vote of confidence from Disney-owned ABC despite a tumultuous year that included a high-profile suspension, threats from major station groups, and profound personal loss. The shorter one-year term (down from previous three-year deals) reflects the shrinking landscape of traditional late-night television amid cord-cutting and the rise of streaming.
The renewal arrives just three months after Kimmel’s career faced its most serious crisis. On September 10, 2025, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated by a sniper while speaking at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University. The 32-year-old Kirk was shot in the neck and died at the scene. The shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, a former Turning Point supporter who had grown disillusioned, was arrested after a manhunt.
In the days following the killing, Kimmel used his monologue to criticize what he called attempts by some on the right to distance the assassin from the MAGA movement and instead blame left-wing or transgender rhetoric. The remarks triggered immediate and intense backlash. Major station groups Nexstar Media and Sinclair Broadcast Group announced they would preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! in dozens of markets. On September 17, ABC abruptly pulled the show off the air entirely, citing the need “to avoid further inflaming a tense situation.” The suspension lasted six days; Kimmel returned on September 23 with a defiant opening segment defending political satire and free speech.
The episode sparked a nationwide debate about the boundaries of late-night comedy in a deeply polarized climate. Some conservatives, including FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and President Trump, accused Kimmel of insensitivity and called for consequences, while many in the entertainment industry and free-speech advocates rallied behind him. By late September, the preempting station groups quietly resumed airing the program.
Now in its 24th season, Jimmy Kimmel Live! debuted in January 2003 and has become one of the longest-running late-night shows in U.S. television history. Kimmel’s close friendship with Stephen Colbert (the two share the same manager, James Dixon) added a layer of poignancy to the timing of the announcement; both hosts have acknowledged that the traditional late-night format is under existential pressure.
Compounding the professional drama, Kimmel suffered a devastating personal blow last month when his lifelong best friend and the show’s bandleader, Cleto Escobedo III, died at age 59. Escobedo, who had led Cleto and the Cletones since the program’s premiere and had been by Kimmel’s side since childhood in Las Vegas, succumbed to cardiogenic shock following complications from a liver transplant, including sepsis and pneumonia. Kimmel paid emotional tribute to Escobedo on air and on social media, calling the loss “heartbreaking beyond words.”
As Jimmy Kimmel Live! heads toward 2027, it stands as one of the last major broadcast late-night institutions still standing. Whether the newly announced extension marks the beginning of Kimmel’s long goodbye or simply another chapter in a career defined by resilience, controversy, and raw honesty remains to be seen. For now, the lights in the Hollywood studio will stay on—and the host who has cried on air over health scares, political outrage, and now the death of his closest friend shows no sign of walking away quietly.
