The New York Times’ Bill Carter brings up the idea of Jimmy Kimmel moving up a half-hour into Nightline’s slot. However in the article, Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, “denied there was any plan for action in the short or long term, saying that no change in status for either the Kimmel show or ‘Nightline’ would take place this year.”
An ABC insider tells TVNewser, “We’ve been hearing these rumors for years. Nightline continues to do great journalism, and is in a great position.”
A position that sees Nightline beating CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman 41% of the time this season, and twice beating NBC’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno in the A25-54 demo and once in Total Viewers. Jimmy Kimmel Live hasn’t beaten either program this season.
In the fourth quarter of ’08, Nightline was the #2 show during late night in the demo and 3rd in Total Viewers, while Kimmel was #5 in both.
“Just look at the numbers — Nightline is performing very strongly,” says the insider. “The same cannot be said of Kimmel. If you do the math this story just doesn’t add up.”