Crisis for Disney as Nexstar and Sinclair Station Groups Say They Won’t Air Jimmy Kimmel: Comedian Blocked From One Fourth of Country

The Nexstar station group said late Tuesday morning that it will not air “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on the ABC-affiliated stations it owns when the show returns to air Tuesday night. The statement followed Monday night’s announcement by Sinclair Broadcasting that it will not broadcast the program. The two large station groups are standing by their decision last week to pre-empt the show.“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will therefore not be available to about one fourth of the country, following the lifting by Disney of his suspension for comments its eponymous host made last Monday regarding the accused killer of Charlie Kirk. Mr. Kimmel was suspended on September 17, two days after he said a “MAGA gang was desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.” By the time of his comment, the governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, had stated that the suspect held left-wing views. On Monday afternoon, ABC’s corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company, said that after “thoughtful conversations with Jimmy,” it decided to bring his show back. It was unclear whether Mr. Kimmel agreed to issue an apology as a condition of his return. While Mr. Kimmel is scheduled to return, Sinclair has decided to extend its decision to preempt his show. In a statement, Sinclair said, “Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming.”Sinclair has previously said it wants Mr. Kimmel to apologize to the Kirk family and make a donation to Turning Point USA before it decides to carry his show again. The decision not to air Mr. Kimmel’s show means that Americans in 38 markets will not be able to watch the program live, including the Washington, D.C., market, where Sinclair owns WJLA, the greater D.C. area’s ABC affiliate.Nexstar, which owns 32 ABC affiliates, said on Tuesday, “We made a decision last week to preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ following what ABC referred to as Mr. Kimmel’s ‘ill-timed and insensitive’ comments at a critical time in our national discourse. We stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve.”“In the meantime, we note that ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ will be available nationwide on multiple Disney-owned streaming products, while our stations will focus on continuing to produce local news and other programming relevant to their respective markets.” It’s unclear if viewers in markets with Nexstar or Sinclair ABC stations will be able to watch Mr. Kimmel’s program at its original broadcast time, due to the intricate nature of broadcast contracts. Services like Hulu and YouTube TV stream ABC programming from that market’s local station. “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is available on demand on Hulu the day after its original airtime.Critics have attributed the decision of Nexstar — whose management, like Sinclair’s, is believed to be conservative — to its business interests as it recently announced a deal to merge with another station group, Tegna, which requires the approval of the Federal Communications Commission. Hours before Nexstar made its announcement last week, the chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, suggested that station groups should preempt Mr. Kimmel’s show. He also said ABC could take the “easy way” and voluntarily handle the Kimmel situation, or the “hard way,” which would require more “work” by the FCC. Critics suggested that Nexstar’s decision was meant to appease regulators to ensure its merger goes through.Mr. Carr denied that he was issuing a threat to stations with his comments. Speaking at New York City’s Concordia Summit, the chairman said, “What I spoke about last week is that when concerns are raised about news distortion … there’s an easy way for parties to address that and work that out.”“In the main, that takes place between local television stations that are licensed by the FCC and what we call national programmers like Disney. They work that out, and there doesn’t need to be any involvement of the FCC,” Mr. Carr said. “Now, if they don’t, there’s a way that is not as easy, which is someone can file a complaint at the FCC, and then the FCC, by law, as set up by Congress, has to adjudicate that complaint. And what I’ve been very clear in the context of the Kimmel episode, is the FCC, and myself in particular, have expressed no view on the ultimate merits.”Over the last week, the CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, came under siege from Hollywood’s liberal power centers, as well as from elite media figures and politicians at New York and Washington, who aggressively defended Mr. Kimmel and threatened boycotts. Matt Belloni, the closely followed insider Hollywood journalist, pointed to a rare denunciation from Michael Eisner — Mr. Iger’s predecessor at Disney — as a key event that may have swayed the “thin-skinned” Mr. Iger’s hand.Mr. Kimmel is expected to address his controversial remarks on Tuesday night, but he is not expected to apologize. Without any apology, it is unclear whether Sinclair and Nexstar will ever decide to air his show again. The reduced coverage will make it harder for Disney to draw in the same audience it promised to advertisers, who reportedly paid more than $50 million in 2024 to advertise on Mr. Kimmel’s show, which was struggling with falling ratings and was believed to have been losing large amounts of money, by some measures of accounting, even before last week. If the station groups do not relent, it could put financial pressure on ABC — beyond the already declining ad revenue for the late-night model — if advertisers refuse to pay the same prices while Mr. Kimmel’s show is not accessible for roughly a quarter of ABC’s reach. Mr. Kimmel, who has attacked Mr. Trump and conservatives on a regular basis for years, will now be under close scrutiny for comments derogatory toward and scornful of MAGA conservatives.His three-year contract runs through May 2026. He is believed to make between $15 million and $16 million a year. Disney’s decision to let Mr. Kimmel return — perhaps largely on his own terms — may be an interim measure with the intent of sunsetting the show, by mutual agreement with Mr. Kimmel, in the spring. The staff of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will now have several months to look for new jobs in a punishing Los Angeles area entertainment job market, rather than losing their jobs immediately.ABC did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Crisis for Disney as Nexstar and Sinclair Station Groups Say They Won’t Air Jimmy Kimmel: Comedian Blocked From One Fourth of Country

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