ABC Press

Press release - Ratings

September 29, 2026

‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ Finishes 2025-2026 Season With Largest Overall Audience in Eight Years and Strongest Adults 18-49 in Four Years

Season Premiere Week Is No. 1 Across Late-Night With 2.29 Million Total Viewers and 0.21 Rating Among Adults 18-49 

Disney/Randy Holmes*

Series photos are available here. 

  • “Jimmy Kimmel Live” finished the recently concluded 2025-2026 season averaging 2 million Total Viewers — the show’s most-watched season in eight years (since 2017-2018).  
  • Among Adults 18-49, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” averaged a 0.18 rating for the season, ranking No. 1 across Late-Night and scoring the show’s best performance in the key Adult demo in four years (since 2021-2022). 
  • The show kicked off the 2026-2027 season ranking No. 1 across Late-Night in both Total Viewers (2.29 million) and Adults 18-49 (0.21 rating), for the week of Sept. 21. 2026, based on Live+Same Day Big Data Plus Panel Ratings.  
  • The opening week victory marked the second season in a row that it took the top spot among Total Viewers and Adults 18-49. In fact, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” stood as the No. 1 show in Late-Night in Adults 18-49 during premiere week for the fifth consecutive year — since the 2022-2023 season.
  • In the final week of the 2025-2026 season (w/o 9/14/26), “Jimmy Kimmel Live” ranked No. 1 in both Total Viewers (2.34 million) and Adults 18-49 (0.22 rating). 

 Source: Nielsen National Live+Same Day Big Data Plus Panel Program Ratings for the 2025-2026 Season (9/22/25 – 9/20/26), week of 9/21/26 and week of 9/14/26. 24/25 season comparisons are based on Big Data Plus Panel, while prior seasons are panel-only. 

*COPYRIGHT ©2026 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All photography is copyrighted material and is for editorial use only. Images are not to be archived, altered, duplicated, resold, retransmitted or used for any other purposes without written permission of ABC. Images are distributed to the press in order to publicize current programming. Any other usage must be licensed. 

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