Disney, the parent company of ABC, suspended the comedian “indefinitely” after his comments about the death of right-wing political figure Charlie Kirk. On Monday, the company restored Kimmel to his late-night hosting job amid fierce backlash, but most local ABC stations are not controlled by the network.
Both Sinclair and Nexstar said they would pre-empt the shows on their local ABC stations and air other content, effectively blocking viewers in those markets from watching Kimmel’s return in real time.
Neither company owns any stations in Boston, where the ABC affiliate, WCVB-TV, is owned by Hearst Television. In New England, Nexstar owns ABC stations in Connecticut and Vermont, WTNH-TV and WVNY-TV. The company said it would preempt Kimmel on all its stations. (Nexstar and Sinclair also own CBS and NBC stations in New England, which aren’t affected by the Kimmel situation.)
In Providence, Sinclair does not own ABC6’s FCC license, but purchased its non-licensed assets earlier this month, taking over the station’s operations.
Sinclair is still determining how it will combine ABC6’s operations with NBC10; some ABC6 staffers were laid off, and Sinclair has not yet said if remaining employees will move to NBC10’s station in Cranston.
Kimmel was yanked off the air by ABC last week after he joked about the Republican reaction to the murder of Charlie Kirk, saying Trump supporters were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr accused Kimmel of “trying to mislead the American public.”
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said before ABC announced the suspension. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Both Nexstar and Sinclair, which each own dozens of ABC-affiliated stations, also said they would not air Kimmel on their stations. Sinclair also said Kimmel should apologize to the Kirk family and make a donation to his company, Turning Point USA.
The decision prompted backlash from the public, who criticized the move as a First Amendment violation. Scores of consumers said on social media they would cancel their Disney+ subscriptions.
After ABC said it would restore Kimmel to the airwaves, Nexstar and Sinclair both said they would continue to pre-empt it. Sinclair said it was in talks with ABC about potentially resuming the show, while Nexstar said it would pre-empt it “pending assurances that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve.”
US Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat from Massachusetts, blasted the two companies in a statement, accusing them of trying to curry favor with the FCC for pending deals. Nexstar has a pending application to acquire Tegna, another station group, for $6 billion. If approved, the company would own 285 stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia.
“If approved, Nexstar would control TV stations reaching 80% of households — violating the cap set by Congress to protect against monopolies,” Warren said. “Sinclair, the nation’s second-largest broadcaster, is similarly waiting on Donald Trump’s approval for a broadcast deal and is planning even larger upcoming deals.”
“This censorship of Kimmel reeks of corruption,” she said.