Speaking on the “Politickin” podcast, Jimmy Kimmel, the host of the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show and 21-year late-night TV veteran, said that he suspects most late-night shows as we know them will be gone within a decade, as various influences and factors are driving people away from sitting down and watching TV shows live.
Leading off with his comment that the shows might well be gone within a decade, Kimmel said they all might be gone in a relatively short period of time, at least on network TV channels, on which the shows have always been. He said, “I don’t know if there will be any late-night television shows on network TV in 10 years.”
Continuing, Kimmel said that even if one manages to survive, the rest won’t. He said, “Maybe there’ll be one but there won’t be a lot of them.” He further explained that people now want to tune into streaming services and watch whatever they want, whenever they want, not sit down for a late-night show.
He said, “There’s a lot to watch and now people can watch anything at any time, they’ve got all these streaming services. It used to be Johnny Carson was the only thing on at 11:30 p.m. and so everybody watched and then David Letterman was on after Johnny so people watched those two shows, but now they’re so many options.”
Further, Kimmel argued that social media is at fault for making people uninterested in watching such shows. He then said, “Maybe more significantly, the fact that people are easily able to watch your monologue online the next day, it really cancels out the need to watch it when it’s on the air. Once people stop watching it when it’s on the air, networks are going to stop paying for it to be made.”
Concluding his comments on the fate of late-night shows like his, Kimmel spoke about how he is worried about his show ending and him not having much to do, and so he worries each contract will be his last one. Speaking about that aspect of the genre’s decline, Kimmel said, “I will have a hard time when it’s over. It worries me. That’s part of the reason I keep going. Each time, I think this is going to be my last contract and then I wind up signing another contract, it’s because I fear that day, that Monday after my final show, where it’s like, ‘OK, now what am I going to do?’”
And, finally, Kimmel explained to those on the Politickin podcast that there are not exactly a great many options for a former late-night show host like him in terms of new work after the show draws to a conclusion, saying, “There aren’t a huge amount of options for late-night hosts after the shows are over. People think of you like a late-night talk show host, it’s not like you are suddenly going to start starring in films.”
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