Disney Is Working to Keep Jimmy Kimmel on ABC Next Year

Disney's president and chief creative officer Dana Walden says she is working to keep Jimmy Kimmel on ABC into next year.

Walden spoke on 1 October at Bloomberg's Screentime, in a Thursday morning conversation focused on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Disney's wider slate, as reported by Variety. She said late-night remains a very challenging daypart, meaning the fixed late-evening block in the TV schedule.

Kimmel is doing a phenomenal job and his ratings are up, Walden said. The audience has moved. That rise is relative to a smaller pool of people now watching late-night on broadcast television.

Millions of people watch parts of the show on demand through its YouTube channel, she said. That viewing does not pay the same way. Walden said YouTube catch-up is not a lucrative opportunity for a very premium talk show, which still carries the staff, studio and production costs of nightly network television.

Disney is trying to make sense of that business, she said, while honouring a deep partnership with Kimmel. The decision rests on two questions. What Kimmel wants next, and what is right for the business.

For viewers, this means no final call yet. Talks are continuing, with next year as the target for a return.

The comments follow a report from Page Six in September that Kimmel would step back from late-night when his contract expires in May 2027, after 24 years on air. ABC denied that report, saying news of Kimmel's departure was inaccurate and that any reports about the future of the show were purely speculative, according to Variety.

Walden also addressed the weak box office for Disney's live-action Moana, which reached cinemas in July. She blamed its timing, pointing to its proximity to the animated Moana 2, which came out in November 2024.

The original animated Moana earned 643 million dollars worldwide in 2016. Walden suggested the short gap left too little room between the two films for a new cinema run to build.

What makes this stand out is the maths problem underneath both stories. A familiar name can still draw a crowd, but the slot it plays in has changed, whether that is late-night television or a cinema calendar crowded by its own sequel.