Late-night TV isn’t what it used to be. At least, that’s the narrative surrounding the latest news with the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS and ABC’s brief suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Headlines suggest viewers are tuning out, but is that the real story?

What the ratings say

Since 2015, major network late-night shows have lost a big chunk of their audience in the 18–49 age group — the demographic advertisers love most, per Forbes . The share of that audience for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” dropped dramatically over the last decade. Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon’s shows have seen similar declines, according to Fox Business .

In the second quarter of 2025, “The Late Show” led with an average of 2.42 million viewers, followed by Kimmel at 1.77 million an

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