First on LateNighter: Jimmy Kimmel is bowing out so Stephen Colbert can bow out.
When The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs its final episode on CBS Thursday, May 21, Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be dark.
Kimmel himself confirmed to LateNighter that his ABC show will not produce a new episode next Thursday out of deference to Colbert’s sendoff. The move will mark a break from the show’s usual cadence, with the show set to air new episodes Monday through Wednesday next week, followed by a repeat Thursday as Colbert signs off.
It’s a gesture with precedent. Kimmel made the same call in 2015, when David Letterman signed off from Late Show, opting not to compete against the final broadcast of one of his comedy heroes. At the time, Kimmel said he had too much respect for Letterman to do anything that might pull viewers away from Dave’s goodbye.
Colbert occupies a different place in Kimmel’s late-night universe—not a childhood idol in the Letterman mold, but a peer and friend with whom he has presented a united front during late night’s more turbulent moments.
Colbert’s finale is not just the end of his 11-year run as host; it is also CBS’s farewell to The Late Show franchise itself, bringing down the curtain on a program that began with Letterman in 1993 and became one of network television’s defining late-night institutions.
At press time, Colbert’s other 11:35 competitor, NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, was still scheduled to air a new episode opposite Colbert’s May 21 finale.
That’s not to say that Fallon, who’s also a friend and ally of Colbert, is missing the farewell tour. He is set to join Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver on The Late Show tonight for a Strike Force Five reunion. Both NBC late-night shows are dark tonight so Fallon and Meyers can gather with their fellow hosts at the Ed Sullivan Theater before returning with new episodes Tuesday through Thursday this week.
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