Jimmy Kimmel Slams This 'Beyond Nonsensical' Explanation For 'Late Show' Cancellation

The late night host said the "alleged insiders" simply "don’t know what they’re talking about" when it comes to Stephen Colbert's program.

Jimmy Kimmel ripped reports that the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was annually losing tens of millions of dollars, weeks after CBS claimed it was “purely a financial decision” to cancel its decades-old late-night franchise.

Kimmel told Variety that it’s “beyond nonsensical” that Colbert’s program could be losing $40 million a year, a figure that sources shared with the New York Post (The New York Times also reported that the show lost $50 million in ad revenue last year).

“These alleged insiders who supposedly analyze the budgets of the shows — I don’t know who they are, but I do know they don’t know what they’re talking about,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel — a late-night fixture since 2003 — explained that the analysis seemed to only focus on advertising revenue and not affiliate fees (the money that TV providers pay to networks to carry their channels), which can amount to “hundreds of millions” and possibly “billions” of dollars.

“And you must allocate a certain percentage of those fees to late-night shows,” he added.