Sinclair ABC stations won’t air ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ despite return to network
Sinclair Broadcast Group revealed that it won’t air “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on its ABC affiliate stations –despite Disney’s decision to bring back the late-night talk show beginning Tuesday.
“Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!‘ across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming,” Sinclair, which has the nation’s largest number of the network’s affiliate stations, posted on X on Monday.
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“Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return,” the group announced.
Kimmel, whose show was pulled following his controversial comments about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, negotiated his return with Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger and his No. 2, Disney Entertainment Co-Chair Dana Walden, sources with knowledge of the situation told The Post.
The $15 million-per-year late-night host will address his comments during a monologue on his return broadcast Tuesday, though he will stop short of apologizing for his remarks that Kirk’s alleged killer was part of the “MAGA gang,” sources said.
In a statement on Monday, Disney said it suspended Kimmel last Wednesday “to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” calling some of his comments “ill-timed and thus insensitive.”
Sinclair had previously called on the talk show host to issue a “direct apology” to the Kirk family and make a donation to Turning Point USA, the conservative nonprofit co-founded by Kirk.
“Mr. Kimmel’s remarks were inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country,” Vice Chairman Jason Smith said in a statement after Kimmel’s axing last week.
It is not yet clear whether Nexstar, which has 32 ABC affiliates, will follow in Sinclair’s footsteps to preempt the late-night talk show.
Together, Sinclair and Nexstar affiliate stations make up a quarter of ABC’s reach to households, Deadline reported.
Sinclair also owns ABC affiliate WJLA-TV, an influential flagship station in Washington DC.
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