Did you see what’s happening to late night TV?

When Jimmy Kimmel returned from his suspension recently, he crushed it.

6.3 million people tuning in on ABC. His best numbers in years.

But guess what…

That same opening monologue? 22 million views on YouTube.

Literally three times larger for the same piece of content.

A typical episode gets about 1.6 million viewers on TV, and his YouTube monologues get 3 to 5 million views.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert just got cancelled.

Reports claim it was losing $40 million.

Late night used to be a cash cow.

Now it's bleeding money because the content economy has fundamentally changed.

Kimmel said it himself: "ABC pays for the show, and YouTube pays nothing. YouTube gets to sell it and keep half the money."

Translation: ABC pays millions for production, and YouTube takes half the ad revenue while TV ratings suffer because people just watch the clips online for free.

And even though Kimmel dominates on YouTube compared to other late night hosts, he's not even close to being one of the main YouTube revenue earners.

The stubborn mistake

Kimmel won't change his show for YouTube.

He said: "I'm very conscious of the fact that ABC pays for the show. I've never made the show for YouTube."

But the numbers don't lie.

YouTube is where the audience actually is.

If a legacy institution like late night TV - with decades of infrastructure and massive budgets - cannot compete with this new distribution, what does that tell you about the future of media?

YouTube's secret weapon

What most still don’t understand is (unless you read this newsletter 😉) YouTube isn't just competing with TikTok or Instagram anymore.

They're fighting Netflix, HBO, Disney and Amazon Prime.

For the most valuable real estate in digital media: your television screen.

And they've already won.

YouTube owns 11% of all U.S. TV viewing.

And they just announced a bunch of new features that are going to widen that gap:

(1) 4K thumbnails

The thumbnail file size limit is going from 2 megabytes to 50 megabytes. That's a 25x increase. Your thumbnails can finally match the quality of your videos on massive 4K screens.

(2) AI upscaling

Any video uploaded below 1080p gets automatically upscaled to HD with 4K support coming.

(3) Immersive previews

Like Netflix-style autoplay previews but for your YouTube channel. Hover over a channel on your TV and videos start playing. Discovery just got a massive upgrade.

(4) Shopping via QR codes

35 billion hours of shopping content was watched on the platform in the last 12 months. Now viewers can scan a QR code on screen and buy instantly on their phones. Products pop up at the exact right moment. Frictionless commerce from the couch lol.

What this all means

If Jimmy Kimmel - with all of ABC's resources, decades of brand equity, and massive production budgets - can't make the traditional TV model work anymore, what does that mean for your business?

It means you can't afford to ignore where your audience actually is.

You can't build for platforms that used to matter while ignoring the ones that matter now.

You have to go where the attention is, in the format they want to consume it.

Otherwise you're just building your own version of late night TV.

Expensive, declining, and wondering why the clips work better than the show.

Remember, the creator mindset is all you need to grow 🌱

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