Jimmy Kimmel Live! is cutting down its musical guest performance count to twice per week, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Multiple sources familiar with the matter say Kimmel music producer Jim Pitt had informed them in the past several weeks about the move, though none who spoke with THR say they were given any reason for the decision. The ABC late night show is not expected to get shorter, another source familiar with the matter says.
Reps for Jimmy Kimmel Live! did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decrease is the latest below to a late night TV ecosystem that has already been cutting down on music in the past several years. NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers, for example, rarely if ever features musical guests on the show now, and the show lost its Fred Armisen-fronted house band in 2024 due to budget cuts. Meanwhile, even before the news of the show’s cancellation, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert‘s musical guest inclusion had waned as well, and the cancellation takes an entire show off the board for artist features.
Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show had been the two remaining late night shows still regularly featuring musical guests during most of their airings. Pitt and fellow booker Mac Burrus spoke with entertainment site Consequence last year about keeping the musical presence on the show, where Burrus told the outlet that “music has been a priority at Jimmy Kimmel from day one. He’s always championed late night in its classic form, being a huge fan of Letterman.”
As Pitt said at the time: “ Mac and I, because it’s our department, feel very fortunate that Jimmy is such a supporter in the music space.”
The traditional late night musical booking doesn’t necessarily move the needle the way it once did in the pre-digital era, though some in the industry argue the slot still helped upcoming artists earn an air of legitimacy as they got platformed by long-standing brands on the major television networks. With the shrinking of linear TV and traditional print media, those opportunities are becoming harder to come by for new acts.
Late night itself has faced increased challenges in the past year, with CBS announcing The Late Show’s cancellation last July, with the final show coming this May. The network called the move “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” and a source previously told THR that they didn’t believe any of the network late night shows were profitable anymore.
Others, however, had speculated the move to be more political to curry favor with the Trump administration as Paramount sought to merge with David Ellison’s Skydance. Meanwhile, last fall Disney had temporarily suspended Kimmel’s show after local station groups Nexstar and Sinclair decided to preempt the program over comments Kimmel had made about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. (Kimmel said Republicans were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”)
Kimmel returned to the air a week later, and Sunday night, he won a Critics Choice Award for best talk series. He acknowledged the suspension in the acceptance speech Sunday.
“Thanks to all the writers and actors and producers and union members, many of you who are in this room, who supported us, who really stepped forward us and reminded us that we do not take free speech for granted in this city or in this country,” he said. “Your actions were important, and we appreciate them.”
Additional reporting by Tony Maglio.
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