WINNING BIGLY

Jimmy Kimmel Defies Trump With Eye-Popping New Ratings Record

The late-night host and Trump nemesis is ruling television, despite the president’s claims.

Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show is setting new ratings records, despite the president repeatedly claiming otherwise.

In June, Jimmy Kimmel Live! boasted the highest average monthly rating of its 23-year run.

LateNighter first reported the win, using Nielsen Live+7 ratings data. Across the month, Kimmel’s show averaged 3.15 million per night—a 24 percent increase from May. The show also ranked the highest in the 18-49 demo, marking a 112 percent month-over-month increase.

Kimmel’s episodes on June 3, 5, 8, and 10 did particularly well with that demographic, drawing more than 700,000 on each night.

The late-night race is looking a little different since Stephen Colbert was pulled off the air by CBS. Colbert’s final episode was released on May 21st. His replacement, Byron Allen, whose Comics Unleashed has taken over the former late-night host’s coveted spot, is averaging just 807,000 total viewers, down 16 percent from his show’s first six-episode run in May.

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Second to Kimmel in the 11:35 p.m. lineup is NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which is averaging less than half of ABC’s June total, with just 1.47 million nightly viewers—though that, too, represents a four percent increase over May.

Both Kimmel and Fallon drew additional viewers from their networks’ respective NBA coverage, reports LateNighter. The publication also noted that Kimmel has risen significantly in a single year, up 66 percent overall and 69 percent among adults 18–49.

The big win for Trump’s 58-year-old nemesis comes after a tumultuous year. In September 2025, Kimmel was temporarily pulled off the air after MAGA erupted over the host’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

In the year that followed, Kimmel hasn’t shied away from continuing to anger both MAGA and the president. Kimmel’s proven popularity won’t please Donald Trump, who routinely spars with Kimmel and even demanded in April that ABC officially fire him.

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Trump also consistently claims that Kimmel has low ratings. The president has called Kimmel “ratings challenged” and later, when publicly asking the host’s network to let him go, wrote, “When is ABC Fake News Network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel, who incompetently presides over one of the Lowest Rated shows on Television?”

ABC has renewed the contract of the new king of late-night TV, who will remain onscreen until the end of 2027.

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Meera Navlakha

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Meera NavlakhaEntertainment Reporter

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