Jimmy Kimmel's ratings were in free fall prior to his suspension for statements about Charlie Kirk

Jimmy Kimmel's ratings were in freefall before ABC suspended him for his comments about Charlie Kirk. This was shown by Nielsen data reviewed by the New York Post.

The news outlet found "sharp summer declines and a year-long slide that leaves him trailing late-night rivals such as Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld and CBS star Stephen Colbert."

According to Nielsen's monthly reports, Jimmy Kimmel Live!" tallied just 1.1 million viewers in August 2025, down 43% from the 1.95 million recorded in January. Also, its audience rating of 0.35 in households during August was the lowest of the year.

It was also reported that the 18-49 demographic, key for advertisers, showed a steep decline. In August, Kimmel averaged just 129,000 viewers in that segment, down from 212,000 in January and less than half its peak of 284,000 in June.

"Quarterly numbers confirm the trend: Kimmel averaged 1.82 million viewers in Q1 2025, then slipped to 1.77 million in Q2. The August low signals a deeper summer swoon — though summer viewership is traditionally lower as most shows air re-runs," NYP noted.

The decline in viewership this year continues the trend recorded in 2024, a challenging period for the program. According to annual Nielsen ratings compiled by specialty site LateNighter, Kimmel averaged 1.77 million total viewers last year, a 2.3% drop from 2023.

This Wednesday, ABC reported that it will indefinitely remove Jimmy Kimmel Live! from its programming, after Nexstar Media, one of the main owners of television stations in the United States, announced that it would stop airing the program due to the host's comments about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The situation came after Kimmel commented during his Monday night monologue that the "MAGA gang" was trying to take political advantage of the conservative activist's murder.

"We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them," Kimmel said.