Jimmy Kimmel offered Stephen Colbert a late night return weeks after CBS show ended
Jimmy Kimmel wanted Stephen Colbert to guest host his ABC talk show weeks after The Late Show ended on CBS.
Jimmy Kimmel offered Stephen Colbert a return to late night but it felt "premature".
The 58-year-old talk show star is on his summer break with a rotation of guests hosts stepping in, including the likes of Colman Domingo, Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz, Rosie O'Donnell and Jelly Holl, while the former Late Show icon politely declined a spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live! so soon after his own CBS programme was cancelled.
Kimmel told Variety: "Of course, I asked him, and I think it feels premature.
"But I told him, 'Anytime you want to host, it doesn’t matter if it’s the summer, I’ll gladly step aside.' "
Kimmel's ratings hit a record high with an average of 3.15 million viewers, which is the best ever monthly audience for the ABC show over 23 years.
Referencing CBS' decision to cancel The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in May, Jimmy quipped: “The ratings are very strong, which we are very grateful to CBS for their wisdom.
“We were doing pretty well before that, but that really helped.”
Asked if Colbert's fans have found a new home with his show, he teased: "I’ve always thought of our show as an orphanage."
Colbert took over The Late Show from David Letterman in 2015, and on May 22 he took to the stage one last time, and TV bosses claimed it was axed because of money issues, but Kimmel is adamant darker forces could be behind the decline of late night talk shows.
Last month, he told Vulture: "There are far more people watching late-night TV than there ever were, if you look at the number of views me and my colleagues get online every day and add in our linear-television ratings ... We’re not just dying of natural causes. We’re being poisoned ... "
Kimmel's contract with Disney-owned company ABC expires in 2027 after only being extended for one year rather than a typical three-year stint, and he has admitted Jimmy Kimmel Live! is facing an uncertain future after more than two decades on the air.
He's been thinking about how he plans to bow out but worries some of his ideas might be a little "selfish".
Kimmel added: "It’s important to me to be responsible. I know I could go out in a blaze of glory and get a lot of applause for it, but it would be a very selfish thing to do."
Speaking about his contract only being renewed for a year, he admitted: "Everything is so tumultuous. That seemed to make sense. It’s definitely not how it’s gone in the past."
