Jimmy Kimmel may be returning to ABC Tuesday night, but his show will remain dark in a large swath of the U.S., with Sinclair Broadcast Group saying that it will preempt the show.
“Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming,” the company said in a statement Monday. “Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”
The Walt Disney Co. said Monday that Kimmel would return to the air after his nearly week-long suspension.
“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,” the Bob Iger-run company said Monday. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
However, most ABC stations in the U.S. are owned by independent station groups, and Sinclair is the largest owner of ABC stations, with 38 across the country, including WJLA, the ABC affiliate that serves the Washington D.C. metro area.
It was pushback from Sinclair and Nexstar that sparked Disney’s decision to pull the show in the first place, with both station groups telling Disney that they would preempt the show in response to his comments last Monday night about Charlie Kirk’s killer. Sources say that other ABC affiliates had also expressed concerns.
Nexstar, it should be noted, has a $6 billion-plus deal pending before the FCC to acquire Tegna, an agreement that would make it by far the largest owner of local TV stations in the country. Sinclair has also expressed a desire to pursue M&A, which would also require FCC approval
