Nexstar, Sinclair will keep Jimmy Kimmel show off air for now
By Brett Rowland | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – ABC is bringing back "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" but some stations won't carry the program after the host's controversial remarks about activist Charlie Kirk's assassination.
Nexstar Media Group Inc. announced Tuesday the company's owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network will continue to preempt Kimmel's show.
"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," the company said in a statement. "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."
Sinclair made a similar decision.
"Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming," the broadcaster said in a statement. "Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show's potential return."
The Walt Disney Company announced Monday it will air "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" again Tuesday night.
Disney executives said they decided to return after "thoughtful conversations" with Kimmel.
"Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive," according to a company memo.
Unions representing writers and actors, including the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, condemned Disney's decision to pull Kimmel.
Other late-night hosts and celebrities, including David Letterman, Rosie O'Donnell, Jon Stewart, and John Oliver, also condemned the network's suspension of Kimmel.
"The decision to suspend airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the type of suppression and retaliation that endangers everyone's freedoms," the union said. "SAG-AFTRA stands with all media artists and defends their right to express their diverse points of view, and everyone's right to hear them."
On Monday, Kimmel opened the show with a monologue that compared Trump's mourning of Kirk to "the way a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish."
"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 said in his monologue.
An assassin shot and killed Kirk, a close ally of Trump, during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
Trump said his son, Don, told him, "He's sort of like a son to you." Vice President J.D. Vance took Kirk's casket on Air Force Two to his home state of Arizona.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said on Benny Johnson's show that Kimmel's comments were "some of the sickest."
"One of the most significant newsworthy public interest acts that we've seen in a long time in what appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into that narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or a Republican-motivated person," Carr told the host.
The accused assassin told his transgender roommate, "I had had enough of his hatred. Some hate can't be negotiated out," before climbing a rooftop to shoot Kirk during a speaking event at the college.
Sinclair Vice Chairman Jason Smith previously said the government must intervene.
"We appreciate FCC Chairman Carr's remarks today and this incident highlights the critical need for the FCC to take immediate regulatory action to address control held over local broadcasters by the big national networks."
Sinclair also called for Kimmel to apologize to the Kirk family and "make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA."