Jimmy Kimmel says he lost half his audience over Trump jokes

Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel believes he lost half of his fan base over his jokes about former President Donald Trump.

On the latest episode of the Naked Lunch podcast, the 54-year-old comedian also claimed he threatened to walk away from his show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, after ABC executives hinted he should tone down his anti-Trump rhetoric.

“If you want somebody else to host the show, then that’s fine. That’s OK with me. I’m just not going to do it like that,” he said of his conversation with producers.

Once popular amongst conservatives, Kimmel became a prominent media critic of Trump. He said he made it clear to producers that his position was an integral part of the show and a “sacrifice” he was willing to make.

“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,’” he told ABC.

“There’s a sacrifice you make when it comes to your audience and you could do pretty well if you just stayed down the middle.”

“Ten years ago, among Republicans, I was the most popular talk show host. At least according to the research they did,” he added.

Podcast co-host Phil Rosenthal said Kimmel was doing a “public service” on the show.

“I couldn’t live with myself otherwise,” Kimmel responded.

The late night TV host said that his ratings had fallen significantly over the same period, as had other late night shows, but attributed it in part to more of his audience watching his show online.

Kimmel recently signed a three-year contract extension.