The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and beating The Tonight ShowCraig Erwich, President, ABC Entertainment and Hulu Originals, told Deadline, “First of all, we want to stay in business with Jimmy for many, many years to come. He’s the king of late-night, he’s the longest serving host of any current late-night shows. He had a really great year last year, beating [Jimmy] Fallon in adults 18-49 for the first time ever, so as long as Jimmy wants to be on ABC, we’d love to have him.
It’s understood that Kimmel’s contract is up next summer and if does decide to leave, the network would have to figure out how to replace him. It’s a particularly tough trick given the name of the show doesn’t necessarily allow for a new host in the same way thatdo, and ABC doesn’t have anyone that follows Kimmel in the way that Seth Meyers and James Corden do for Fallon and Colbert.
It’s not the first time that Kimmel has considered retiring from the show. In 2019, he revealed that he had thought about leaving but that ABC bosses had persuaded him to return for another three years, taking the show to 20 seasons. He told Deadline then, “I was seriously considering, I don’t know if you’d say it was really retiring because I’d always do something. The job was a grind but I really do like Karey [Burke], Dana [Walden] and Peter [Rice] and they came in with… I felt appreciated and that is important even if you have a job that people think of as glamorous, you want to feel like the company is behind you and I do and that was a big part of it. Also, a lot of my relatives would be unemployed if I quit the show.
Kimmel has also been stepping up his production business Kimmelot, which is a venture with Brent Montgomery’s Wheelhouse, with series such as ABC’sCrank YankersOnce Upon A Time In Queens.