Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said there are a lot of people who are interested in what he and his colleagues have to say.
Kimmel boasted off the back of his best month of ratings ever, directly after his pal Stephen Colbert left the CBS airwaves.
‘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.’
Couch surfing
Colbert took over “The Late Show” in 2015 from host David Letterman, eventually nose-diving into a $40 million annual loss for his network before leaving in May.
When asked if Colbert’s viewership had made its way over to his show, Kimmel told Variety, “I’ve always thought of our show as an orphanage.”
It was later in the same interview that Kimmel explained he had a plan to get Colbert back behind the desk on his own network, ABC/Disney, and host for at least some period of time on his show.
For his summer break, which just started, Kimmel revealed he had asked Colbert if he would do him the honor of guest hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
However, Colbert reportedly declined on the grounds that it was too soon.
“Of course, I asked him, and I think it feels premature,” Kimmel told the outlet. “But I told him, ‘Anytime you want to host, it doesn’t matter if it’s the summer, I’ll gladly step aside.'”
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Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Host with the most
The allegation that Colbert fans changed the dial over to ABC in June comes after Kimmel averaged 3.15 million viewers, his best monthly audience ever in the show’s 23 years.
Kimmel jabbed at CBS, thanking them “for their wisdom,” while adding, “We were doing pretty well before that, but that really helped.”
The viewership marks a 17% increase from May with a doubling of viewers in the 18-49 market.
The 58-year-old Kimmel took the chance to dump on the podcast market during the recent interview, saying his numbers blow them away.
“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,” Kimmel bragged.
“There’s still a lot of people watching late-night television, and I include the other shows in that,” he said. “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. They may … not necessarily be watching it on their TV, but it seems like a little bit of people are coming back to their old friend television.”
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Scott Kowalchyk/CBS/Getty Images
Summer slots
Kimmel’s summer break is set to feature a revolving door of some of Hollywood’s most memorable cogs like Ike Barinholtz, Anthony Anderson, and Rosie O’Donnell.
Other hosts include actor Colman Domingo and musician Jelly Roll.
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