Donald Trump delighted in Jimmy Kimmel’s recent claim that he’s lost half his fan base for beating the former president on the air over the weekend – and told attendees at a rally that Kimmel’s late-night show is dead.
The ex-commander in chief made the brazen statement at a rally in Pennsylvania – two days after Kimmel, 54, spoke out about dwindling viewership for Jimmy Kimmel Live! had complained. on a friend’s web show.
At the performance, Kimmel, an outspoken critic of the former president, revealed that he threatened Live! when showrunners floated the idea that he was barred from attacking Trump — even though his myriad jabs cost him at least half his audience.
Apparently delighted with the revelation, Trump, 76, cheerfully shot the broadcaster on Saturday, providing additional entertainment for event-goers in the town of Latrobe.
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Donald Trump reveled in Jimmy Kimmel’s recent claim that he’s lost half his fan base for beating the former president on the air over the weekend – and told attendees at a rally that Kimmel’s late-night show is “dead.”
“I saw Jimmy Kimmel say his show is practically dead because no one who likes Trump is going to watch,” Trump tells the crowd in footage of the night’s gathering.
‘And guess what? It turns out that was a majority of the people,” Trump then blows with a triumphant note in his voice. “The show is dead, and so are the others.”
Trump’s cursory comment regarding “the others” appeared to be a shot at Kimmel’s late-night colleagues like Jimmy Fallon and James Corden — two vehement progressives who are often accused of being vehicles for the liberal mainstream media.
Supporting this conclusion regarding Trump’s passing remark is the fact that the former President followed up on this claim by calling attention to Conservative Spokesman Greg Gutfeld’s success on Fox News with his own show Gutfeld!
Trump’s verbal smack came two days after Kimmel, 54, spoke out about dwindling viewership for Jimmy Kimmel Live! had complained. on a friend’s web show during a recent interview with Phil Rosenthal, creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, on the Naked Lunch podcast
“Greg Gutfeld on cable has the number one nightly show,” Trump insisted, citing the Conservative’s most recent average ratings of 2.15 million viewers — which was well above what Liberal rivals Fallon, Corden, Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah had recently time have reached months.
The show, which ran nightly in April 2021, is often reviled by the left and adored by the right – but as Liberals choose between The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Gutfeld! has earned a place at the top of the pack in the battle for night dominance.
‘That’s great, isn’t it?’ Trump told the crowd on Saturday about the longtime Fox host’s newfound success – and the subsequent struggles of his left-wing rivals.
Immediately afterwards, the former President was honored with thunderous applause from those present.
Kimmel, pictured on his show with a then-campaign Trump in 2016, said he threatened to leave the show if he had to dismiss his Trump jokes: “If you want someone else to host the show, that’s in Order. I’m just not going to do it like that,” said the liberal broadcaster
That said, the late-night sphere has seen a lot of changes lately — mostly caused by reduced viewership, which Trump alluded to was due to liberal talking points that were frequently featured by hosts while they were on the air.
Back in July, showrunners pulled “Full Frontal” by notorious neoliberal comedian Samantha Bee to TBS after Bee, a former correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, struggled to garner even 300,000 viewers for her show.
Then, in September, Stewart’s replacement, bright comedian Trevor Noah, was kicked out of the program after seven years, also with ratings dwindling.
Since taking Stewart’s place on the once-popular show, viewership has dropped dramatically – some say the South African comic’s fierce soapbox rants sparked the slump.
When Noah, 38, took over the show in 2015, the ratings were around 900,000 – but in recent months the numbers have fallen below 400,000.
For reference, Stewart’s tenure typically saw viewership around 1.5 million per episode — rising to 2.5 million at times.
Viewership figures for the week of September 19-25 show liberal late-night shows in favor of new top dog Gutfeld! play second fiddle, which aired weekdays at 11pm last April. Many attribute the drop to recent political tirades displayed by the hosts during the show
Meanwhile, it’s hard to find a monologue about Colbert, Kimmel, or Seth Meyers without talking about Trump, who has been out of office for almost two years.
Still, the famously liberal Meyers, who took on the Late Night mantle made famous by David Letterman and later downsized by Fallon in 2017, hasn’t hit the viewership mark in recent years.
In 1984, Letterman averaged 2.5 million viewers. Today, Meyers struggles to even reach the 800,000 viewer mark.
The situation at CBS is reportedly so dire that rumors are swirling that Meyer’s show could be relegated to either the network’s struggling streaming service, Peacock, or to notoriously left-wing network arm MSNBC.
Corden, meanwhile, has also faced his own controversy and even worse ratings, also failing to hit 800k as he faces backlash from fellow comedians like Ricky Gervais for stealing their material.
Back in July, showrunners pulled “Full Frontal” by notorious neoliberal comedian Samantha Bee to TBS after Bee, a former correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, struggled to garner even 300,000 viewers for her show.
Across the rest of the late-night sphere, the ratings phenomenon is fairly similar, with only Colbert, Kimmel and Fallon surpassing the million mark in second, third and fourth place behind Gutfeld.
All are well below Gutfeld’s impressive ratings! with 2.5 million hits in October, according to the latest Nielsen study.
Average ratings for the above shows have all fallen well below ratings achieved in recent years, and have been hosted by increasingly outspoken – and left-leaning – hosts for the past few years.
And while these hosts continue to welcome guests like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Nancy Pelosi — while spouting damaging rhetoric — Fox’s Gutfeld has since emerged as the king of the late night.
Then, in September, Stewart’s replacement, bright comedian Trevor Noah, was kicked out of the program after seven years, also with ratings dwindling
Coupled with Kimmel’s recent ratings revelation, this seems to illustrate viewers’ desire for non-partisan and even uncompromising content — something the late mainstream shows seemed to have lost touch with.
And as ratings for those shows continue to plummet to all-time lows, no one has been more excited about the changing landscape than Trump, who last month congratulated Gutfeld, who previously hosted talk show Red, on his recent viewership — while also giving him credit for it the decline in ratings for Kimmel’s, Colbert’s and Noah’s shows.
“It was my great honor to have destroyed the ratings of late-night comedy shows,” the ex-president wrote on his Truth Social Platform of the shows’ troubles.
“There’s nothing funny about the shows, the three presenters have very little talent,” he continued.
Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez appeared on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show earlier this year. As shows become more political and partisan, late-night comedy’s cultural decline seems to continue
The former president’s sting came just days after Noah, known for his on-air play criticizing Trump and other conservatives, announced his departure from Comedy Central – which he claimed at the time meant more time with Stand to spend -up.
And as these shows become increasingly political and partisan, welcoming polarizing guests who almost always have their own agendas, late-night comedy’s cultural decline appears to be continuing, say industry watchers — with Corden’s and Meyer’s shows both set to be pulled their current syndication through 2023.
Joseph Wulfsohn of Fox News wrote of the phenomenon: “If there were two things Americans could never have predicted ten years ago, it would be the political rise of Donald Trump and the cultural demise of late-night comedy
“The concept of a late-night comedian who remains apolitical or stabs both sides of the aisle comes from a bygone era, as it’s now routine for hosts to use their opening monologue to relentlessly slam Trump and Republicans in general. “
Trump, meanwhile, has hinted at a third presidential bid for 2024.
If successful, it would mark the first time in the history of the position that a candidate has run for two non-consecutive terms.
Trump has not yet officially announced his campaign.