Local TV giants boycott Jimmy Kimmel’s return to late night
- The San Juan Daily Star
- Sep 24, 2025
- 4 min read
By BENJAMIN MULLIN
Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was to return 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 were not going to air 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.
On Tuesday, Carr continued to suggest that his comments had not played a major role in Disney’s decision-making. He placed the blame for Kimmel’s suspended show squarely on Disney and local TV stations, and blamed Democrats for “illegally weaponizing government to silence dissent,” and added that they “want to blame” anyone else for the suspension.
He said local affiliates had the authority to manage their programming as they see fit.
“Local TV stations — not the national programmers — have public interest obligations, and they should be making decisions that in their view meets the needs of their local communities,” Carr said.
For Disney, the controversy has already been taxing. Data from the research firm Yipit suggests that the “cancel Disney+” campaign has caused more subscriber churn than some imbroglios at other companies. Among them: the controversy created by Netflix founder Reed Hastings’ donation to former Vice President Kamala Harris, which spurred a social media boycott; and the contretemps stemming from the Netflix show “Cuties,” which was criticized for sexualizing young girls.
Network contracts with TV station groups typically carry a “right to reject” clause that gives local affiliates permission to preempt programs they believe are contrary to the public interest or unsatisfactory to their audiences. But there is little precedent for a group boycotting a program for a sustained period. The “right to reject” provision was invoked in 2006 when a Mormon-owned TV station in Utah balked at the prospect of carrying a special with Madonna that they feared would show the pop star hanging on a mirrored cross.
Disney may have some means to push back on local TV station groups that refuse to air its programming for a protracted period. If Sinclair and Nexstar continue to balk at airing Disney’s programming, the company can move its shows to another TV station owner when its contract with the dissenting group expires.
Affiliates moving or networks not renewing with stations has been quite rare, in part because such moves are generally expensive for both sides, said John Chachas, owner of Methuselah Advisors, a boutique mergers-and-acquisitions firm. But things are changing.
“We may be approaching a moment where more movement happens,” Chachas said. “In this case, politics is blending in and complicating an already changing set of network-affiliate relationships.”
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