has extended latenight host
‘s contract for two more years, locking him up at the network through January 2017.
The “Jimmy Kimmel Live” star is in his 11th season as headliner of ABC’s latenight lineup.
The vote of confidence in Kimmel emphasizes ABC’s desire for stability in a period marked with movement at rival networks: CBS’
David Letterman recently announced his retirement
from the coveted “Late Show” desk in 2015, which
Stephen Colbert will take over
, exiting his long-running “The Colbert Report” over at Comedy Central. Shortly thereafter, “Late Late Show” host
announced that he would be departing CBS at the end of the year.
After Jay Leno’s recent exit, NBC managed a relatively smooth transition that installed Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers as the hosts of “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night,” respectively.
Kimmel ‘s “Scandal”-centric April 17 telecast
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for the show, averaging over 4 million viewers.
“I don’t really know how any of this happened,” Kimmel recently told Variety of his longevity at ABC. “I just stumbled from radio to TV, then I became a talkshow host.”
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