‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ Making Big Change for 2026

Jimmy Kimmel Live! is doing something new in 2026.

According to Deadline, there will be a reduced number of musical guests each week moving forward on the late-night talk show.

This comes after Jimmy Kimmel Live! also reduced the number of performance slots each week. The outlet confirms that the show will have just about two musical performances a week, and while this is not a hard number nor has the show always had a musical slot every episode, reduction is the plan at the very least. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the talk show’s music producer, Jim Pitt, has started informing people, likely artist managers, record labels, and promo bookers, that Jimmy Kimmel Live! is cutting down its musical guest number.

Music publication Consequence of Sound had reported that the number of musical performances on late-night dropped from 800 between 2011 and 2013 to closer to 200 in 2023. Of course, that doesn’t mean that music is completely vanishing from late-night. In support of her record-breaking album The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift appeared on both The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers, with her Tonight Show appearance in October taking up over 50 minutes of the episode.

JKL! will also be seeing three musical artists performing this week: folk artist Molly Tuttle, Debbie Gibson with The Cletones, and EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami of HUNTR/X from KPop Demon Hunters as the trio continues their award season campaign. Since two musical guests doesn’t seem to be a hard limit, it’s possible this won’t be the only week moving forward where Jimmy Kimmel Live! has three of them. But for now, don’t expect the show to go overboard.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Kimmel Live! had a tumultuous end to 2025. The talk show was suspended for a few days in September after Jimmy Kimmel made some comments about Charlie Kirk following his death. Then in November, the show went on a brief pause after longtime band leader and Kimmel’s childhood friend, Cleto Escobedo III, died on Nov. 11 at the age of 59. Whether more changes are coming for the show are unknown, but all of late-night has been struggling as of late, especially after CBS canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which will be having its final show in May.