‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ ABC Ratings Pale in Comparison to YouTube Viewership, YouTube Exec Claims
ROME – The return of Jimmy Kimmel to Jimmy Kimmel Live! generated a significant ratings boost for ABC,โ but YouTube’s Head of Business Strategy and Operations, EMEA, Luca Forlin, asserts the show’s performance on the Google-owned platform far exceeded its โlinear television viewership. Speaking today at MIA Market in Rome,โ Forlin highlighted the โdisparity as a demonstration of YouTube’s reach and โpotential for content creators.
Kimmel โresumed hosting his late-night show on September 23, following a suspension related to comments made regarding Charlie Kirk. While the episode drew 6.5 million live+same day viewers – becoming โABC’s second-most watched episode ever – the YouTube version, titled โค’Jimmy Kimmel is back!’, amassed 22 million views within two weeks of its broadcast. Additional related videos further contributed to YouTube’s overall audience gains.
“It was a huge moment, and he hadโ a huge audience spike, but even that audience spike on linear paled in โcomparison to what YouTube gained inโ terms of audience,” Forlinโค stated. He described a typical “multiplier โฃeffect” of 4x to โฃ10x between linear and YouTube viewership for live streaming and live events.
Forlin used the Jimmy Kimmel Live! โฃ example to encourage Italian producers and creatives โฃto explore opportunities on YouTube, including content monetization and โขplatform-specific growth. He further illustrated YouTube’s rapid scale by comparing Netflix’s viewership of Squid Game to a similar recreation by top YouTuber MrBeast.
“Netflix had โannounced after six months โฃthat about 400 million โขpeople had viewed the series,” Forlin explained. “MrBeast replicatedโข with his โคown Squid Game, and it took only a few weeks to โคreach 400 โmillion viewers. That’s โฃthe speed and scale that YouTube operates at, and it’sโฃ there for you.”