Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast Group have both said that they will keep preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! when it comes back on Tuesday night.
This will affect over a fourth of ABC’s affiliate reach because both organizations have a big share of the network’s distribution.
Nexstar’s choice about Kimmel
Nexstar said in a statement that it made the decision to cancel Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week because ABC called Mr. Kimmel’s comments “ill-timed and insensitive” at a very important time in our national conversation.
We still believe in that decision, but only if everyone involved promises to help create a space for courteous, helpful conversation in the areas we serve.
Nexstar also said that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will still be available on Disney-owned streaming services across the country, while its stations will focus on local news and other relevant programs.
A representative for Nexstar said that most of the affected stations would show longer local newscasts during Kimmel’s time slot.
Backlash and criticism
There has been some disagreement about the choice to interrupt Kimmel’s show.
Barack Obama, the former president, and Michael Eisner, the former CEO of Disney, were two people who spoke out against what they viewed as businesses giving in to pressure from the Trump administration.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who is in charge of the Senate committee that oversees the FCC, also spoke out against the measure. He compared FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s words to those of the mafia.
Earlier in the week, Carr had been on a podcast where he said that stations may be fined or perhaps lose their licenses if they kept airing Kimmel’s show.
Nexstar posted a statement in response to the rising outcry, saying that the company’s top leadership team made the decision without talking to the FCC or any other government agency first.
But the timing of Nexstar’s move seemed strange, especially considering the business is trying to get FCC permission for its merger with Tegna, a big station group.
The FCC’s role
Carr’s public comments made things worse. During the podcast, he seemed to provide stations a plan for how to avoid any problems that might come up from showing Kimmel’s inflammatory comments.
He said on a podcast, “A lot of these licensed broadcasters need to stand up to Comcast and Disney and say, ‘Listen, we’re going to preempt, we’re not going to run Kimmel anymore, and you need to fix this because we, licensed broadcasters, could get fined or lose our licenses from the FCC if we keep running content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion.'”
Nexstar and Sinclair combined reach approximately a quarter of ABC’s audience. Nexstar has 32 ABC affiliates, and Sinclair has more than three dozen.
These affiliates are located in big cities like Nashville, Salt Lake City, and New Orleans, as well as smaller locations like Sioux City, IA, Lubbock, TX, and Knoxville, TN.