Jimmy Kimmel Fans React After Late Night Show Drops News of Big Change
What To Know
- Jimmy Kimmel Live! will reduce its musical guest performances to about two per week, though the show’s overall length will remain unchanged.
- Fans expressed disappointment on social media, noting that live music was often a highlight and speculating about reasons such as cost-cutting and changing viewing habits.
- This move reflects a broader trend among late-night shows, with musical performances declining significantly across the industry in recent years.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be cutting back its musical guest performances to around two per week, according to new reports from Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter.
Per THR, Kimmel music producer Jim Pitt informed various sources familiar with the matter about the move in the past several weeks. None of them was said to have been given a reason for the decision, though it was noted that the ABC late-night show would not be getting shorter.
Deadline reported that the show intends to reduce the number of musical performances to around two per week, though it’s not a set number. For example, this week already has three performances booked, including folk artist Molly Tuttle (who sang on Monday’s show), Debbie Gibson on Wednesday (January 7), and HUNTR/X from KPop Demon Hunters, featuring EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami on Thursday (January 8).
Fans took to social media to react to the news, with one Reddit user writing, “In the ’90s I would stay up late to watch music acts I’ve never heard of, my favorite bands, stand-ups, etc. But now I think most people are just consuming the monologues and maybe the guests the day after on YouTube.”
“It used to be so thrilling to get to see an appearance from your favorite band or artist on late night TV!! Now we can see them daily on social media so it has lost its luster a bit,” added another.
Another said, “That’s too bad. Live music is literally the only thing I look for when checking late nite shows.”
“I barely watch the show anyway but the musical guest was usually the only highlight,” one Reddit commenter wrote.
“If there’s one thing these late night shows need to cut it’s the boring scripted interviews with A-list celebrities who are just there to promote a TV show or movie,” said another.
Another added, “Yeah this is really sad. How much money will that really save them? Jimmy could’ve paid the difference himself.”
“I wonder if this has to do with renting the stage area/extra staff because they don’t have musical guests in the same place as the studio,” suggested another.
The number of musical performances on late-night shows has dropped dramatically over the past few years. According to a report from Consequence of Sound, late-night musical performances dropped from around 800 between 2011 and 2013 to around 200 in 2023.
NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers has essentially cut all musical guests, including removing Fred Armisen‘s house band in 2024 due to budget cuts. Meanwhile, musical guests on Kimmel and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert have scaled back in recent years.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Weeknights, 11:35/10:35c, ABC
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