Fallon, Kimmel late-night shows to go dark on Stephen Colbert's last night on air

Several late-night hosts are stepping away from new programming on May 21 as Stephen Colbert airs his final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Both Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel will not air new episodes, with their shows instead going dark in a show of solidarity with Colbert’s final broadcast.

NBC will substitute The Tonight Show in place of a fresh Fallon episode. ABC confirmed that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will also pre-empt new programming for the evening, reports Variety. The decision effectively removes two of the biggest competing late-night broadcasts from the schedule on the same night that Colbert’s long-running CBS program concludes.

Colbert’s final episode follows the announced cancellation of The Late Show last year by CBS after more than a decade on air.

The three hosts were joined earlier this week by Seth Meyers and John Oliver for a joint appearance on The Late Show, marking a reunion of the group behind the “Strike Force Five” podcast. The podcast was launched in 2023 during simultaneous Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, when late-night production across networks was paused. Proceeds from the project were directed toward supporting staff members from their respective shows who were without pay during the shutdown.

On Monday, Jimmy Kimmel stated: “We have a lot of shows. 30,000 people watching each one, and it adds up. People watch us on YouTube now. People have a lot of different options and they keep coming to us,” he said.

He also said: “I will tell you, when I got knocked off the air for a few days, people canceled Disney+. Why aren’t people canceling Paramount+? Because you never had it in the first place?”

Colbert’s final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is set to air May 21.