ABC’s “Nightline” is facing belt-tightening after getting bumped to a later time slot to make room for Jimmy Kimmel at 11:35 p.m.
Staffers were told this week that they would need to trim budgets to bring them in line with lower ad revenue in their new 12:35 a.m. slot. ABC insiders spun it as a “reallocation of budgets” because staffers will get funding to produce several primetime specials during the year.
Last season, “Nightline” drew $40 million in ad revenue and averaged 3 million viewers at 11:35 p.m.
The decades-old program was the No. 1 show in its first week in the new time slot. “Nightline” garnered 1.7 million viewers on Monday, and 1.6 million the following two nights, beating out NBC’s Jimmy Fallon and CBS’s Craig Ferguson.