As Jimmy Kimmel Live! returns to ABC on Tuesday night and millions of screens across America tune in in, swaths of the country will only have access to “news programming” instead of the late-night show. Broadcasting giant Sinclair announced its decision to not air Kimmel’s show despite its return to the airwaves this week.
“Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming,” Sinclair said in a statement to Rolling Stone on Monday. “Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”
Last week, ABC “indefinitely” suspended Kimmel after comments he made on Jimmy Kimmel Live! about about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and following a threat from President Trump’s FCC chair. Days after Kirk’s murder, Kimmel remarked on the political affiliation of the killer. “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” the host said on the show, “and doing everything they can to score political points from it”.
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The decision to pull Kimmel was met with immediate backlash. An open letter published Monday from the ACLU and signed by over 400 figures across the entertainment industry pushed back against “government threats to our freedom of speech.” “In an attempt to silence its critics, our government has resorted to threatening the livelihoods of journalists, talk show hosts, artists, creatives, and entertainers across the board,” the letter read. “This runs counter to the values our nation was built upon, and our Constitution guarantees.”