Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel hit CBS with backhanded praise after its canning of Stephen Colbert sent ratings at its rival network soaring.
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In an interview with Variety, Kimmel — whose show airs on ABC — credited an almost 20 percent increase in viewership to the head honchos at CBS who pulled the plug on Colbert’s show to gain favor with President Donald Trump.
“The ratings are very strong, which we are very grateful to CBS for their wisdom,” he sarcastically told Variety. “We were doing pretty well before that, but that really helped.”
According to the Variety report, Kimmel’s June performance was historically high: 3.15 million viewers averaged per episode — the show’s best monthly audience in 23 years.
Compared to May, viewership jumped 17 percent. Among adults 18-49, the numbers were even more dramatic — a 109 percent surge.
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CBS blamed poor performance for its cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” though the decision was widely criticized as being part of its broader effort to appease Trump, whose allies have targeted the network for alleged bias. Colbert’s displaced audience appears to have migrated directly to Kimmel’s timeslot.
When asked if “orphaned” Colbert viewers found refuge on ABC, Kimmel told Variety, “I’ve always thought of our show as an orphanage.”
Making the case for late-night comedy, Kimmel observed, “It’s silly how people go wild about a podcast that’s No. 5, and the numbers still don’t even compare to a television show. There’s still a lot of people watching late night television, and I include the other shows in that. And there are still a lot of people looking at our shows on YouTube the next day, and there’s a lot of people who are interested in what we have to say.”
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