Jimmy Kimmel claims late night has 'no future' after NBC cuts back on Tonight Show

The times, they are-a changing. The Tonight Show, the gold standard for late night television, had recently undergone a massive shift. NBC has decided to cut down the show's weekly schedule, so that it will only air four new episodes a week instead of five.

It's a major change for a show that's been on the air for eight decades, but it's indicative of the way late night is going in 2024. The rest of the core late night lineup, which includes The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Kimmel Live, have already made the shift to four episodes a week.

Kimmel joked about Fallon is getting an extra day off

Kimmel, the veteran host of the bunch, decided to address this shift during his appearance at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. He claimed that he has a group chat with Colbert, Meyers, and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, and he sent Fallon a text once NBC decided to slash his schedule:

"As a group, we have a text chain of all the late-night hosts and we sent all of our congratulations to Jimmy Fallon for getting Friday off."

The host feels that the talk show is dying

The wittiness of Kimmel's response, however, was overshadowed by the other comment he made about the schedule change. While Jimmy Fallon has, effectively, secured another day off, the move to four episodes a week denotes a waning interest from viewers. It's something Kimmel is very aware of, and stated bluntly when asked for a follow up.

"There is no future for late-night," Kimmel asserted. Not a lot of optimism there, but, given the host's previous comments, not altogether surprising. He recently voiced his concern over where his career will go once he stops hosting a show, and he admitted that the lack of options has kept him wed to his current set up.

Barring some major changes, Kimmel is right about the late night format. All we can do is enjoy it while it's still here.