Jimmy Kimmel’s planned return to late-night television was thrown into uncertainty on Monday as two of the largest owners of ABC-affiliated stations said they would continue to preempt his program, leaving swaths of the U.S. without a conventional broadcast of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” even as ABC reinstates the show. ABC said the program would resume on Tuesday after a six-day suspension prompted by remarks Kimmel made about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, but affiliate groups Sinclair and Nexstar announced they would not carry the show in their markets for now.
In a statement, ABC said it had “spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.” The network initially suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last week, saying it wanted to avoid inflaming a tense moment after Kimmel’s monologue remarks the prior Monday.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, which operates ABC affiliates in dozens of markets, said it would not air the show when it resumes. “Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming. Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return,” the company said. In a separate press release last week, Sinclair called Kimmel’s remarks “inappropriate and deeply insensitive” and said it would not lift its preemption until formal talks with ABC about “professionalism and accountability,” while also urging Kimmel to apologize to the Kirk family and make a personal donation to the family and to Turning Point USA. Sinclair aired a remembrance special for Kirk in the show’s time slot on Friday.
Nexstar Media Group, which owns or partners with stations in more than 100 U.S. markets, said last week that its ABC affiliates would “preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show,” citing strong objections to Kimmel’s comments about Kirk’s killing. “Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse,” Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said at the time.