Jimmy Kimmel Told Disney Advertisers He's Cost the Company "Billions"
Jimmy Kimmel walked into Disney's annual Upfronts presentation for advertisers on May 12 and immediately started doing what he does best — making very expensive people uncomfortable while they laugh about it.
His main theme was money. Specifically, how much of Disney's money his ongoing battles with President Trump have cost the company.
"I cost our company a lot of money this year, billions," Kimmel said. "It is very possible that no employee in the history of any company has cost their employer more than hiring me 24 years ago. Just from a purely mathematical standpoint, I was the worst personnel decision that the Disney Corporation ever made. Not even the captain of the Exxon Valdez did more damage."
To underline the point he sent his sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez wandering through the room of wealthy advertisers with a collection basket. Guillermo came back with $7 and a tennis ball.
The Backstory Behind the Joke
The bit lands differently when you know what it's referencing. ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! last September under White House pressure — a move that generated significant news coverage and a fair amount of backlash. The show came back. The battles with the Trump administration have continued. And apparently the financial fallout has been real enough that Kimmel felt comfortable making it the centerpiece of his annual roast of the industry.
The irony he pointed out himself — the fights have actually been good for his ratings. Up 25% in the 18 to 49 demographic, which is the number advertisers care most about.
"Largely thanks to our partners in Washington, we are up 25% in viewers aged 18 to 49," Kimmel said. "It's a big deal for your numbers to go up nowadays. But if Johnny Carson woke up with my ratings, he'd have gone straight under the sink and chugged all the Drano he found there."
So he's costing the company billions and simultaneously delivering its best demographic numbers in years. Late night television in 2026 is a strange business.
The Colbert Send-Off
The night before the Upfronts Kimmel had joined his fellow late-night hosts on the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — a show that ends its run this week after CBS decided to replace it with Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed.
Kimmel did not let that pass without comment.
"As in 'least' likely to offend the president with a rerun of Comics Unleashed featuring Paula Poundstone and Andy Dick," he said, playing on the word "leased." "Poor Stephen, it's bad enough to lose your job. Imagine getting replaced by the owner of the Weather Channel."
The State of Television According to Kimmel
The broader theme of Kimmel's speech was that the network television landscape has gotten so rough that he no longer feels comfortable doing his usual routine of mocking the other struggling networks — because ABC is struggling too.
"Now we're like a bunch of dirty, starving chihuahuas under the table waiting for a chicken leg to drop," he said. "For the first time, I'm rooting for CBS."
He did find some genuine enthusiasm for Dancing With the Stars, which he described as "hotter than your grandma's underpants" amid an ABC ratings rebound. And he found time to take shots at the upcoming CBS drama Einstein — in which Albert Einstein's son solves crimes — by wondering aloud who the Einstein was that decided to greenlight it.
The collection basket came back with $7. Disney's market cap is somewhere north of $200 billion. The math tracks.
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