Local TV giants boycott Jimmy Kimmel’s return to late night

Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show is returning to ABC on Tuesday night after a tense standoff from remarks he made about the Trump administration’s response to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. But about a quarter of the ABC stations in the United States won’t be airing it.

Nexstar, a major owner of local ABC stations, said Tuesday morning that it would preempt Kimmel’s show indefinitely. Sinclair, another owner of local affiliates, said the same Monday evening, hours after Disney announced “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would return. Nexstar said it would replace the comedy show with news programming, pending further “discussions with ABC.”

Those decisions set up a high-stakes impasse between Disney and the TV station groups that transmit its shows to millions of households across the United States. The threat of a sustained boycott — a rarity for local TV — puts stations at the center of a debate over free speech that has erupted in the days since Disney initially paused Kimmel’s show.

The stations owned by Nexstar and Sinclair represent a meaningful source of ad revenue for Kimmel’s show. But preempting it indefinitely could lead to backlash for both Sinclair and Nexstar, especially from viewers who enjoy “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The decision was greeted with applause from conservatives and condemnation from the political left.

“Losing large portions of the country’s viewers undermines the network’s business model,” said Andrew Schwartzman, a senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband &Society, a policy nonprofit. “But broadcast viewers are creatures of habit; Jimmy Kimmel is very popular, and affiliates are taking a big risk in taking him away at a time when viewers can migrate to YouTube.”

Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The firestorm began after Kimmel said on his show last week that “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying” to characterize the suspect in Kirk’s killing, Tyler Robinson, as “anything other than one of them.” It escalated when Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, said during an interview that Kimmel’s remarks were part of a “concerted effort to lie to the American people,” adding that the agency was “going to have remedies that we can look at.”

The fallout from Kimmel’s remarks engulfed the normally sleepy world of TV affiliates in a thorny national debate over the First Amendment. The National Association of Broadcasters, a trade association representing TV groups, released a conciliatory statement this week that simultaneously defended the editorial freedom of TV stations while pushing back against “veiled threats” of government interference.

For Nexstar, the favor of the Trump administration is particularly crucial. The company is trying to close a $6.2 billion merger with another TV station owner, Tegna, which requires the FCC’s approval. Nexstar has said that it did not run its decision to preempt Kimmel’s show by the FCC.

Unlike Nexstar and Sinclair, most local TV groups have raised no objections to Kimmel’s show. Gray and Hearst, also large owners of ABC affiliate stations, are planning to run “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Tuesday night as scheduled.

Carr said at a forum Monday that Kimmel’s ratings were to blame for his suspension. Two people with knowledge of Disney’s discussions about the suspension said that Kimmel’s audience size had nothing to do with the decision.

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