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Jimmy Kimmel Budget Cuts

When CBS canceled Stephen Colbert, the cited the high cost as the reason. Now we hear that Jimmy Kimmel's show is facing budget cuts due to falling advertising revenues:


At one time, the music performances on Kimmel were sponsored. They even had an outdoor stage. That sponsor went away a long time ago. People may not know that live music performances on TV are covered by the musician's union as well as royalty fees. So the performers make more than regular talk show guests. Plus the music itself gets paid royalties. Then when that performance is streamed on-demand, there are even more costs.

NBC cut musical performances and the live band from the Seth Myers show several years ago.
 
I bet before the year is out both CBS and ABC will be out of the Late Night TV Business altogether. NBC will keep The Tonight Show but cut out those other late night TV shows and gives back the 12:35 - 7am ET /PT to their stations
 
I bet before the year is out both CBS and ABC will be out of the Late Night TV Business altogether. NBC will keep The Tonight Show but cut out those other late night TV shows and gives back the 12:35 - 7am ET /PT to their stations

Kimmel just signed an extension. So he may be around longer. But all of these late night shows are operating as thought network TV is still the only thing people watch. That situation has changed. So everybody has to adjust to the changing marketplace.
 
Kimmel just signed an extension. So he may be around longer. But all of these late night shows are operating as thought network TV is still the only thing people watch. That situation has changed. So everybody has to adjust to the changing marketplace.
The last time I made time to watch a late night show at the regular time slot was The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Ferguson routinely made fun of the show's low budget, mocked CBS every chance he could get, and embraced social media. Even with the budgetary restrictions, he managed to put on a consistently entertaining show. It was off the wall (a cursing rabbit puppet and serious people like Salman Rushdie and Russell Crowe dancing with a pantomime horse) and was clearly not aimed at the traditional (older) late night audience. Craig (and his robot skeleton Geoff) regularly went "off script."

 
The last time I made time to watch a late night show at the regular time slot was The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Ferguson routinely made fun of the show's low budget, mocked CBS every chance he could get, and embraced social media.

Great example. They were one of the first I can remember to drop music from the show. They had a large performance area, left over from the old days, and they generally used it for their fake dancing horse. I've seen a number of interviews with the man behind Geoffrey Peterson, and it sounds like everything was ad lib, which is great when you're trying to cut costs.
 
Great example. They were one of the first I can remember to drop music from the show. They had a large performance area, left over from the old days, and they generally used it for their fake dancing horse. I've seen a number of interviews with the man behind Geoffrey Peterson, and it sounds like everything was ad lib, which is great when you're trying to cut costs.
Both of them would improv off of each other. Josh Robert Thompson was Geoff Peterson.
 
When CBS canceled Stephen Colbert, the cited the high cost as the reason. Now we hear that Jimmy Kimmel's show is facing budget cuts due to falling advertising revenues:


At one time, the music performances on Kimmel were sponsored. They even had an outdoor stage. That sponsor went away a long time ago. People may not know that live music performances on TV are covered by the musician's union as well as royalty fees. So the performers make more than regular talk show guests. Plus the music itself gets paid royalties. Then when that performance is streamed on-demand, there are even more costs.

NBC cut musical performances and the live band from the Seth Myers show several years ago.
Slightly off topic but I went to see a taping of Kimmel last year while visiting LA. The stage is still there outside the studio so it is presumably still used for *something* that we don't see on TV.
 
Slightly off topic but I went to see a taping of Kimmel last year while visiting LA. The stage is still there outside the studio so it is presumably still used for *something* that we don't see on TV.

Interesting. The theater is owned by Disney. They actually bought it before launching Kimmel. Unlike CBS, they don't appear to be selling any real estate.

To me, the big expense with Colbert was the Ed Sullivan Theater. That's one of the last remaining CBS properties in NYC, after selling off the original headquarters building (black rock) at 51W52nd street.
 
Kimmel just signed an extension. So he may be around longer. But all of these late night shows are operating as thought network TV is still the only thing people watch. That situation has changed. So everybody has to adjust to the changing marketplace.
He got a one year extension, hardly a huge vote of confidence that the show will continue long term. Agree that the budget, in particular, needs to reflect the lower viewership.
 
At that point Jimmy Kimmel will phone it in during his last months of this recent contract

I don't think so. O&O station KABC-TV/7 has been running promos the past few days in which Kimmel jokes around with 11pm Eyewitness News anchor Marc Brown and senior meteorologist Dallas Raines. That's not someone "phoning it in".

And, to answer other posts without cluttering up my own post with quotes, I would be surprised if ABC didn't want to see how much of Colbert's audience they will pick up from CBS. And I am also certain that will enter into Kimmel's thought process going forward. But he has made public statements in the past about considering retirement ... I think the one year contract extension is something he felt he had to do after all the unpleasantness, if for no other reason that he doesn't want to be seen as "letting Trump win".

Presuming that a healthy chunk of Colbert's audience moves over to Kimmel and Trump somehow manages to serve his full term of office (not a given, both from his wild management style and strong evidence that his own health is declining), I don't see Jimmy leaving any sooner than January 2029.
 


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