Jimmy Kimmel will keep his ABC show off the air next Thursday when The Late Show with Stephen Colbert signs off on CBS, giving Stephen Colbert a quiet lane for the final episode of his 11-year run. Kimmel confirmed to LateNighter that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will not produce a new episode on May 21, and the decision will break the show’s usual cadence.
Instead of a fresh broadcast, Kimmel’s show is set to air new episodes Monday through Wednesday next week and then a repeat on Thursday. The choice mirrors the move he made in 2015, when David Letterman ended the Late Show era that began in 1993. Kimmel said then that he had too much respect for Letterman to do anything that might pull viewers away from Dave’s goodbye.
That makes Kimmel and Colbert’s overlap more than scheduling trivia. They have long been described as peers and friends, and in turbulent stretches for late night they have presented a united front. Kimmel’s decision gives Colbert the kind of undivided attention a finale needs, and it also stands out because it was made with the clock already ticking toward 11:35, when the CBS broadcast is set to begin.
The contrast with the rest of the field is sharper still because, at press time, NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon was still scheduled to air a new episode opposite Colbert’s finale. Fallon is also part of a planned Strike Force Five reunion on The Late Show with Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver, though both NBC late-night shows were dark for that night so Fallon and Meyers could gather at the Ed Sullivan Theater.
CBS is ending the Late Show franchise itself with Colbert’s final broadcast, closing a run that started with Letterman in 1993 and continued through Colbert’s own 11-year stretch. For viewers who have followed the franchise through those two hosts, May 21 is not just another Thursday. It is the end of a late-night institution, and Kimmel is making sure the night belongs to Colbert alone.
