NEW: Top CNN Reporter Shuts Down Liberal Cries, Admits Kimmel’s Show Was Financial Drain

The tremendous cost of late night shows, coupled with the lack of advertising dollars, has made budget bombs out of Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and others hosts who may soon be on the chopping block.

But as irate media figures denounce Kimmel’s termination on Wednesday, reporters like CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski can’t help but note the irony of some ideas being tossed around.

The K-FILE reporter launched a vicious quip at a Trump hater on X who tried to encourage Mark Cuban, the famously anti-Trump billionaire, to start his own network featuring Kimmel and Colbert, whose show’s end was announced in July. The latter was one night removed from a monologue where he rebuked network executives for caving to President Donald Trump and paying $16 million to settle a defamation lawsuit.

Almost immediately, the NY Post spoke with sources at parent company Paramount who brought the receipts showing Colbert’s show was losing $50 million annually, leaving an open wound that Paramount needed to close amid its merger with Skydance.

Although it’s not yet known how much Kimmel’s show may have been costing ABC, his annual salary of $16 million was surely a contributing factor.

“Mark Cuban could build a killer network around Colbert and Kimmel,” wrote progressive lawyer Kyle Keegan.

Kaczynski was quick to reply.

“[H]e’s not in business of losing money,” the CNN analyst joked.

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr nearly torpedoed the Skydance merger, brandishing threats on social media and interviews about Paramount’s responsibility to rein in liberal excesses among its news programs and late-night hosts. Many observers believe Colbert’s firing was offered as a means to secure the agreement.

Notably, Kimmel’s cancellation comes as regulators have threatened to derail a $6.2 billion takeover of Tegna by network company Nexstar, insiders told The Post. Sinclair Broadcasting, which carries Kimmel’s show on ABC affiliates across the country, has demanded that the comedian publicly apologize to the estate of Charlie Kirk and make a personal donation after using his death to launch a broadside at Trump and Republicans on Tuesday night.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel told his audience.

Allies of Kimmel have spoken anonymously in the press, defending his First Amendment right to issue left-leaning commentary about the Trump administration and accusing Nexstar of “sucking up” to Carr, who has the authority to nix its merger.

In a recent interview with Sean Hannity, the FCC chair emphasized that he may deny a merger on the grounds that partisan TV is not in the public interest. “Running a narrow partisan circus, whatever the public interest means, it’s not that,” he said.