While late night television is experiencing a major shift, ABC is sticking with its popular host, Jimmy Kimmel. The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host and the network have agreed to a two-year contract extension, ABC said Tuesday.
Kimmel will be staying at ABC through January 2017 with the extension. That means that audiences will get to see how Kimmel, 46, does with a new generation of competition. Stephen Colbert, 49, is taking over CBS’ The Late Show from David Letterman in 2015 and Jimmy Fallon, 39, recently began hosting NBC’s Tonight Show after Jay Leno left.
JKL! debuted in 2003, notes The New York Times. For nine years, the show aired after the newsmagazine Nightline, but ABC swapped the two in January 2013. That put Kimmel head-to-head with Letterman and (at the time) Leno.
Kimmel’s audience continued to grow though and it is up 16 percent in total this season. His show is up 13 percent in the key 18-49 age demographic.
ABC has also scored viral hits with JKL!, with the biggest being the infamous “Worst Twerk Fail EVER,” which turned out to be a hoax. The video of Kimmel announcing to the world that it was fake is up to 19 million views.
top image courtesy of ABC/Randy Holmes