Overview
- Jimmy Kimmel, which confirmed Monday that his ABC show will go dark on Thursday, May 21, will air a rerun out of deference to Stephen Colbert’s final Late Show.
- NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is still scheduled to air a new episode opposite Colbert’s finale, according to multiple outlets reporting current listings.
- Kimmel made the same choice in 2015 for David Letterman’s farewell, reflecting an informal norm where rival hosts step aside for notable exits.
- Colbert’s penultimate week features a Strike Force Five reunion with Kimmel, Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver on Monday, followed by David Letterman on Thursday and other marquee guests and segments.
- After the finale, CBS plans to replace the 11:35 p.m. slot with Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed in back-to-back half hours, a shift announced as The Late Show’s retirement drew debate over CBS’s financial rationale and critics’ claims of political pressure tied to Paramount’s Trump settlement and Skydance deal approval.