Staff Reports
During a Wednesday appearance on a podcast, late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel revealed that he may have lost up to half of his viewers due to his decision to criticize former President Donald Trump.
During the discussion, which was moderated by Phil Rosenthal of the "Naked Lunch" podcast, the late-night host explained that he decided not to lay off the former president due to his show's success.
Rosenthal, who moderated the discussion, noted that even though ABC did not explicitly ask Jimmy to tone down his criticism of the former president, the network might have lost some of its viewers due to his behavior.
According to Kimmel, prior to his decision to criticize the former president, research had indicated that he was popular among Republicans. He also noted that he was willing to leave his show if ABC wanted him to do so.
Kimmel noted that he understood if the producers wanted him to leave his show, but he would not begrudge them if they wanted somebody else to host it. He said that he was allowed by ABC to make his own decision regarding his future on the show.
Rosenthal agreed with him, stating that what he and other late-night hosts like Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert were doing was a public service. They were attacking Republicans on various platforms.
Despite his love for the country, he noted that he didn't consider it a public service that he needed to do just to do it. He said that he would only act against those who were ruining the country.
Comedian Bill Maher, on the other hand, noted that while he was willing to criticize Trump, he didn't go after his supporters. He said that it was "half the country" that he was against the former president.
