Richard Cartwright/ABCJimmy Kimmel on the set of his late-night talk show, which will be moving to 11:35 p.m. in January.Jimmy Kimmel will jump to the big stage in late-night television in January, moving to 11:35 p.m., where he will take on the two titans of that time slot, David Letterman and Jay Leno.
ABC announced the move Tuesday, framing it as a bold effort to seize leadership in late-night entertainment.
ABC has pointed to its leadership in ratings over both Mr. Letterman on CBS and Mr. Leno on NBC’s “Tonight” show, but that has been with the news program “Nightline.” ABC’s management has for years tried to replace that program with an entertainment show because of the possibility to increase revenue in the time period.
“This was just a decision that ABC made on their own. We didn’t push them or bully them.”
— Jimmy Kimmel
Moving Mr. Kimmel is risky because it will displace “Nightline” to 12:35 a.m. on weeknights, but ABC will compensate for that by adding an hour edition of “Nightline” in prime time at 9 p.m. Fridays, starting in March.
Mr. Kimmel said in a telephone interview on Tuesday, “It’s all a bit scary, too, but it’s very exciting.” He was coming to the end of his current contract with ABC and some at the network were concerned about interest from other parties. But Mr. Kimmel said, “This was just a decision that ABC made on their own. We didn’t push them or bully them.”
Anne Sweeney, the president of Disney/ABC, said: “It’s a huge move. This is Jimmy’s moment. It’s a culmination for him. We are looking at a landscape with two entrenched guys who are starting to fade. Their audiences are diminishing and Jimmy, who has now been on 10 years, is continuing to grow.”
Mr. Kimmel has added to his audience totals in recent months. In July, he was up 14 percent over the previous year. Some of that was due to an earlier move the network made to try to enhance his stature, sliding him up from a 12:05 start to exactly midnight.
But Mr. Kimmel has also been gaining much wider praise for his performance. This year especially has been a series of high points for him. He entertained at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and he will host the Emmy Awards next month.
“Jimmy is in the zeitgeist,” Ms. Sweeney said, pointing especially to how effective videos from his show have been online. “When his videos go viral, they really go viral.” She cited as examples bits in which he put a fake lie detector on children and parents told children they stole their Halloween candy.
But as Mr. Kimmel himself put it, “I think they did it just because it makes financial sense.” Ms. Sweeney also cited the higher ad rates a network can charge in late night for an entertainment show.
The timing was clearly critical. ABC noted that CBS had extended Mr. Letterman for two years, and NBC is expected to extend Mr. Leno’s tenure on “Tonight” perhaps as long. That opens the window for Mr. Kimmel, 44, to face the two established late-night stars, both of whom are in their 60s.
It also means that Mr. Kimmel will get an opportunity to become a fixture at 11:35 before NBC makes the expected move of sliding its emerging late-night star, Jimmy Fallon, up to the “Tonight” slot.
“That’s definitely part of this,” Mr. Kimmel said, “as well as who the mystery man will be who eventually takes over for Dave.”
Mr. Kimmel has been open about how much he has idolized Mr. Letterman in his career and said it will be “a little bit strange” to have to face off against him head to head every night (the plan is to expand Mr. Kimmel from four nights a week to five). But he said, “I’m sure this will mean nothing in Dave’s universe.”
He is less concerned about Mr. Leno, with whom he has had a famous on-the-air feud, fueled by Mr. Kimmel’s aggressive mocking of Mr. Leno during the latter’s ill-fated prime-time hour.
But there was a time when ABC was pulling out the stops to woo Mr. Leno to ABC to take over the 11:35 slot; in that situation, Mr. Kimmel would have been shoved back to 12:35.
All parties at ABC profess to being relieved things did not work out that way.
Mr. Kimmel said: “It seems that what you want is not necessarily what’s best and sometimes it’s a little better to be patient and let it all play out.”
Bill Carter writes about the television industry. Follow @wjcarter on Twitter.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: August 21, 2012
In an earlier version of this post, the headline and caption gave the new starting time for Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show as 11:30 p.m., not 11:35 p.m.
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