Jimmy Kimmel’s Suspension Viewership Bump Evaporates; Traditional TV Meltdown Continues As Advertisers Scramble

Disney briefly suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! in September after host Jimmy Kimmel falsely claimed that Tyler Robinson, the furry-obsessed suspect in the political assassination of Charlie Kirk, was affiliated with the “MAGA gang.” That claim was later debunked by court documents revealing Robinson’s radical left-wing views. Nexstar and Sinclair temporarily pulled the late-night show from their network, but since Kimmel’s return, the latest audience data shows viewership has plunged from the levels observed during the hyped comeback show.

As we noted in late September, shortly after Kimmel’s much-hyped return on Sept. 23, his audience numbers began to sink, and this comes as progressive late-night television has faced numerous reckonings, including the cancellation of Stephen Colbert. The crackdown on pharma ads also adds to pressure. 

A Fox News report shows that last Thursday (Oct. 2), Kimmel averaged only 1.9 million viewers, a 71% collapse from his much-hyped comeback show. In the 25 to 54-year-old demographic, viewership tumbled by 85%, falling to 265,000, the lowest since his suspension. This puts the show back near its 2025 pre-scandal viewership average of 1.6 million, erasing any suspension bump.

The return shows that ABC really fumbled a perfect opportunity to cancel an underperforming show that has lost touch with reality and the broader shift in what’s now socially acceptable.

the irony: it’s free speech’s fault all their shows imploded pic.twitter.com/d5Ej4RaTWK

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 19, 2025

In other words, the American people are no longer tolerating the lies and propaganda pushed by unfunny and unhinged leftist comedians and the progressive corporate media that spew endless streams of misinformation and disinformation. 

Remember when wanna-be “comedians” like Stephen Colbert, turned late-night TV into a nonstop left-wing and vaccine-pushing propaganda machine?

Instead of making us laugh, they spoon-fed us Pfizer propaganda and discriminated against the unvaccinated.

They told us to “trust the… pic.twitter.com/YCmkgVNIus

— Dr. Simon Goddek (@goddeketal) October 18, 2024

More broadly, adding to the ongoing headwinds for traditional television, Nielsen ratings data, as cited by a new Goldman Sachs report, show an accelerating erosion of viewership across legacy networks.

Analysts Michael Ng and his team wrote in a note to clients that cable and broadcast networks continue to experience significant audience declines, particularly among key demographics targeted for advertising. However, Disney was the only network to show gains in the fourth quarter. Overall, the report reinforces the view that a continued shift away from traditional TV toward digital and streaming platforms continues full steam ahead. 

For the full report on Goldman’s traditional TV viewership tracker, ZeroHedge Pro Subs can read the full report in the usual place. 

Ng’s note builds on the UBS note we cited in early July, which stated that “Streaming surpasses traditional TV in May.”

For advertisers, the continued collapse of traditional TV ratings should be ringing alarm bells. Kimmel’s inability to retain any of the suspension bump is another troubling sign. This ongoing decline in legacy television suggests that marketers will continue to scramble toward newer, more innovative platforms to reach prime consumers, such as influencers, short-form video ads, and alternative media outlets.