Jimmy Kimmel cheekily reacts to Jimmy Fallon’s late-night episode cancellation
NBC is scaling back Fallon’s late-night show
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Jimmy Kimmel has divulged a cheeky text he sent Jimmy Fallon after learning the TV host had an episode of his late-night show culled.
It was revealed this week that NBC is cutting backThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon from five nights a week to four, with reruns airing on Friday nights.
The major decision comes just months after the network announced it was eliminating the house band from Late Night with Seth Meyers due to budget cuts.
For the past few seasons, Fallon has consistently taped new Friday night episodes despite his competitors, including ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, CBS’s The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, only taping four each week.
Speaking on Saturday (7 September), Kimmel said that all the late-night hosts have a message group set up, and that they congratulated Fallon upon discovering the news.
“As a group, we have a text chain of all the late-night hosts and we sent all of our congratulations to Jimmy Fallon for getting Friday off,” he said at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Appearing to address reports questioning the future of talk shows, Kimmel then quipped: “There is no future for late-night.”
Late-night viewership has declined in recent years due to networks being forced to take money-saving measures.
“Sadly, it’s the reality of broadcast and a shrinking market – streaming eating into this, and YouTube eating into that,” Late Night with Seth Meyers’s associate musical director Eli Janney said in June of the budget cuts.
“Streaming is not making money, either. So budgets everywhere have been cut and cut and cut. I liken it to a Spotify moment in music, where suddenly it’s like, nobody wants to pay for music. Music gets devalued.”
However, it’s worth noting that, earlier this year, Fallon’s show was renewed by NBC to run through 2028. Fallon, 49, first joined The Tonight Show in 2014, taking over hosting duties from Jay Leno following his retirement.
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