Disney president Dana Walden did very little to quell a recent Page Six report that Jimmy Kimmel Live will be coming to an end next year.
Page D2From§Eachthe late evening edition — 1 October 2026
Disney declines to say the word 'no' when asked if it's canceling Jimmy Kimmel's show
As it ran on the front
On September 9th, Page Six reported that Jimmy Kimmel's contract will not be extended past 2027, that the twenty-fourth season of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" now airing will be the last, and that Kimmel has held the chair since 2003. The Hill ran it the same day under a headline that said ABC "pushes back." Pushes back — not denies, not calls the report false. That's a distinction worth holding onto. Actually, maybe it isn't. A company that pushes back on a story is disagreeing with it, full stop, and the rest is just — no. Pushing back and denying are two different verbs for a reason: one disputes the frame, the other disputes the facts. ABC chose the first one.
A week later, on September 16th, Stephen Colbert sat across from Kimmel on Kimmel's own show and said he doesn't miss hosting late night, that covering the news every night is "a cup of poison every day." Colbert's own show at CBS had ended that May. The same week, he told the Washington Examiner he isn't thinking about returning to late-night television at all. One canceled host, sitting with the host whose cancellation is being reported, saying he doesn't miss the job.…
…(cont) Then, on October 2nd, the New York Post's headline on Disney president Dana Walden read plainly: she "dodges key question on future of Jimmy Kimmel's late night show." The story under the headline says Walden "did very little to quell" the Page Six report. Quell — the word for calming something you believe is false, which is also the word for a thing a company does not do when it believes a report is true. The company that owns the show, asked about the show, did very little. That is the whole sentence. It should be reassuring. It is not reassuring, and here's where the defense runs out of road: silence from the network that signs the checks is still, on the page, silence.
None of it is a no. The closest thing to one, so far, is a headline with the word "dodges" in it.
“They didn't say no, they said they're "pushing back," and pushing back is what you do about a headline, not about a fact. Disney owns the show, the network, and the guy whose contract is now in question, which means the one company that could end this with a single word just doesn't have to. When the company that signs the check stays quiet about whether the season ending is the last one, that's the answer.”
“Pushing back on a report is standard practice — it's what any company does when a story gets ahead of itself. Look, "did very little to quell" doesn't mean they confirmed anything, it means the language isn't finalized, which — okay, that's not actually a denial, that's a company working out how to deny it. The season airing right now is the current season. That's all anyone's confirmed.”
The receipts
· Colbert tells Kimmel he doesn't miss late night, compares news to 'a cup of poison every day' from the morgue, 16 Sep 2026
· 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' is reportedly ending, ABC pushes back from the morgue, 9 Sep 2026
· Stephen Colbert pours cold water on possibility of return to late-night TV from the morgue, 16 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.