Late-Night Feud Ignites: Jimmy Kimmel Torches CBS Over Colbert’s ‘$40M Loss’ – ‘Not a Snowball’s Chance in Hell That’s True!’

By Lila Voss, Entertainment Reporter Published October 28, 2025

LOS ANGELES — The fragile truce among late-night titans has shattered, as ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel unleashed a blistering broadside against CBS, dismissing the network’s claim that Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show was hemorrhaging $40 million annually as “obvious lies” and “ridiculous.” In a raw podcast appearance taped before his own show’s September suspension and reinstatement, Kimmel didn’t just defend his rival—he exposed what he calls a web of financial fictions designed to mask deeper corporate machinations, sparking a firestorm that’s got fans raging and insiders scrambling.

Kimmel’s takedown, aired on Ted Danson’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast last week, arrives amid a brutal year for late-night TV. Colbert’s axing in July, after 11 seasons and a decade of Emmy dominance, was pinned squarely on “purely financial” grounds by CBS brass. Puck News amplified the narrative, citing insiders who pegged the show’s budget at over $100 million per season—far outstripping ad revenue—and branded it a $40 million black hole compared to profitable daytime fare like The Young and the Restless. But Kimmel, 57, who knows the ledger books as well as the laugh lines, called foul with the fury of a host cornered by his own bosses.

“There’s no way he’s losing $40 million a year. There’s no way it’s even close to that,” Kimmel fumed, his voice dripping with incredulity. “I know how the finances of late-night television shows work, and it’s just ridiculous. It doesn’t make any sense at all.” He zeroed in on the elephant in the Ed Sullivan Theater: affiliate fees. “These alleged insiders seem to only be focused on advertising revenue and have completely forgotten about affiliate fees, which number in the hundreds of millions—probably in total billions—and you must allocate a certain percentage of those fees to late-night shows,” Kimmel told Variety in a follow-up. Without that revenue slice, he argued, any “loss” figure is “beyond nonsensical”—a deliberate distortion to justify canning a Trump-baiting juggernaut.

The timing reeks of quid pro quo, Kimmel implied without naming names. CBS’s parent, Paramount Global, sealed its $8 billion merger with Skydance Media in June, greenlit by the Trump administration’s FCC after months of regulatory wrangling. Colbert, no stranger to skewering the president—his band once donned MAGA hats in mock surrender—had become a lightning rod. Enter a $16 million settlement with Trump over a disputed 60 Minutes edit, and suddenly, late-night heads roll. Kimmel’s own Jimmy Kimmel Live! faced a Disney-mandated hiatus in September, tied to “content review” whispers from the White House, before a swift reversal amid public outcry.

A Brotherhood Forged in the Foxhole

Kimmel’s loyalty to Colbert, 61, traces back to shared foxholes of satire. When the cancellation dropped like a bad punchline, Kimmel fired off an Instagram Story immortalized in fan lore: “Love you Stephen. F*** you and all your Sheldons CBS.” (A nod to the network’s profitable Young Sheldon spinoffs.) On Danson’s pod, he speculated on the “what ifs” CBS could’ve pursued: “We could cut the budget in half, maybe move out of the Ed Sullivan Theater, do the show in a small studio that we already own, because CBS has a lot of studio space.” Instead, they torched a 44-year franchise—David Letterman’s old haunt—leaving Colbert to bid adieu in May 2026.

Colbert, ever the trouper, has stayed mum on the math, focusing on Emmy sweeps (he snagged Outstanding Variety Talk Series on September 14, thanks in part to a Kimmel-backed “For Your Consideration” billboard). But allies whisper of a pivot: HBO Max specials, a Netflix stand-up hour, maybe even a Colbert-Kimmel crossover tour. “Stephen won’t be silenced,” a source close to the host told The Hollywood Reporter. “He’s already pitching The Late Fight—punching up from a garage studio.”

The Ripple Effect: A Genre on Life Support?

Kimmel’s salvo has cracked open the vault on late-night’s fiscal fragility. NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon slashed to four nights weekly; Seth Meyers axed his house band for Late Night. Fox’s Gutfeld! thrives with 3.1 million viewers through July—dwarfing Colbert’s 1.9 million and Kimmel’s 1.5 million—fueled by right-wing schadenfreude. Yet Kimmel insists the “loss” trope ignores syndication gold: Colbert’s clips rack billions in global streams, subsidizing the beast.

Fan Fury and Network Stonewalling

X exploded with #SaveLateNight, hitting 1.2 million posts by Tuesday. “Kimmel spilling the tea—CBS’s ‘losses’ are as real as Trump’s tan,” one viral thread quipped, sharing Kimmel’s clip (2.4M views). Reddit’s r/television lit up: “Colbert losing $40M? More like losing to Trump’s ego,” with 4K upvotes. A Change.org petition for Colbert’s reinstatement crossed 150K signatures, demanding “transparency on the real numbers.”

CBS-Paramount, via a terse statement, reiterated: “Decisions reflect evolving viewer habits and fiscal realities.” No comment on Kimmel’s math. Disney, mum on his suspension, faces its own heat: a Hulu analysis showed cancellations doubling post-Kimmel blackout.

The War Heats Up: What’s Next for Satire’s Survivors?

As Kimmel eyes his own ABC exit whispers—he’s joked about retiring post-Trump 2.0—the Colbert saga feels like the canary in the coal mine. “When you hear things that are obviously lies, you have to assume there are more lies behind it,” Kimmel warned Danson. Is it merger math, MAGA pressure, or streaming’s death knell for linear TV? One insider bets on hybrid salvation: “Colbert on TikTok, Kimmel on podcasts—they’ll outlast the suits.”

For fans losing it over lost monologues, Kimmel’s cry rings defiant: Not a snowball’s chance in hell. In late-night’s cold war, truth might just be the hottest mic.