Jimmy Kimmel announces he lost over half his fanbase due to anti-Trump jokes

This week, Jimmy Kimmel claimed that his anti-Trump gags on his late-night programme have caused him to lose at least half of his fan base.

"I have lost half of my fans — maybe more than that," the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" host said on the "Naked Lunch" podcast Thursday, adding that "10 years ago among Republicans, I was the most popular talk show host," according to research. 

He claimed that when former President Trump first entered the race for president, ABC officials "hinted" at him to stop making jokes about the candidacy.

"I just said, ‘If that’s what you want to do, I understand and I don’t begrudge you for it, but I’m not going to do that,’" the comedian told co-hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild.

In response, he informed executives, "If you want somebody else to host the show, then that's great." He claimed he agreed that being more impartial in his comedy would boost the ratings. I'm cool with that. I'm simply not going to proceed in that manner.

The execs, according to him, pulled back when they saw he was "serious."

Kimmel added, "I couldn’t live with myself [otherwise]," as Rosenthal claimed the host was doing a "public service" with his show. 

Although I love this country too," Kimmel remarked, "I don't think of what I do in that grandiose of a sense. That flag doesn’t belong to them. This is ours. And when I see somebody coming in and ruining it I’m going to say something about it."

In spite of feeling that "there's a sacrifice you make when it comes to your audience, and you could do very well if you simply remained down the centre," he said he is "proud" to be speaking out against Trump.

He also jokingly expressed his desire to be on broadcast when "Trump goes to jail."

Since Kimmel's programme debuted in 2003, ratings have significantly declined, along with those of other late-night shows.

"No one is watching network television anymore," Kimmel said in his interview, acknowledging that most people watch his show online. His show’s YouTube channel has 18.9 million subscribers. 

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