Disney exec fuels speculation on Jimmy Kimmel Live cancellation

Disney president Dana Walden did very little to quell a recent Page Six report that Jimmy Kimmel Live will be coming to an end next year.

The 61-year-old executive – who was named as the Mouse House’s president and chief creative officer back in February – offered her first public comments on Kimmel’s future at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference in Los Angeles on Thursday.

While she did not confirm nor deny the report, she would not definitively say whether the 58-year-old talk show host would be back on ABC after his contract is up in May 2027.

“It’s a very challenging daypart, late-night. That’s not to say that Jimmy is not doing a phenomenal job, and his ratings are up, but they’re up relative to a smaller audience that’s watching late night on broadcast television,” Walden began.

“Obviously, there’s a YouTube channel. Millions of people are watching, on demand, parts of that show. That is not a lucrative opportunity for a very premium talk show, so we’re trying to make sense of the business while also honoring a deep partnership,” she added.

The Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube does boast 22.3 million followers, with one of the videos from Wednesday night’s episode filmed in Brooklyn – featuring Robert De Niro – already earning 3.5 million views in less than 24 hours.

Walden added, “I love Jimmy. We have a great friendship. He’s close to a number of the people at Disney, and again, we’re trying to work through it and make sense of both.”

“What does Jimmy want? What’s the right thing to do, and what’s the right thing for our business?” she concluded.

The Page Six report was published just hours before Jimmy Kimmel Live kicked off its 24th season on ABC, with a source revealing this season would be its last.

“His contract is not getting extended,” a source revealed, though ABC quickly released a statement claiming the, “information is inaccurate.”

“Any reports about the future of the show at this point are purely speculative,” the network’s brief statement concluded.

Kimmel himself hasn’t publicly responded to the report, though he did hint about the end of the show a few years earlier.

Back in February 2024 – when his contract was set to expire in May 2026 – Kimmel revealed to The Los Angeles Times that the contract may be his last.

“I think this is my final contract, I hate to even say it, because everyone’s laughing at me now — each time I think that, and then it turns out to be not the case,” Kimmel said at the time.

He added, “I still have a little more than two years left on my contract, and that seems pretty good, that seems like enough.”

Still, Kimmel ultimately added another year to his contract back in December 2025, which came months after his show was suspended over his controversial comments about the murder of Charlie Kirk.

It also came just a month after his longtime bandleader and childhood friend — Cleto Escobedo III — passed away at just 59 from cardiogenic shock, following complications from a liver transplant.

Jimmy Kimmel Live continues its week of shows filmed from Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House.

He welcomes John Oliver, Seth Meyers and Robby Hoffman on Thursday, with Paul McCartney and Senator Bernie Sanders closing out the week on Friday.

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