The efforts to silence Jimmy Kimmel produced, at least temporarily, an exponential increase in his audience, attracted fresh criticism of media consolidation and underscored the diminishing role of broadcast television in American culture.
One unintended consequence of Nexstar Media Group‘s continued preempting of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on its ABC affiliates, including WTNH in New Haven, was to demonstrate that network affiliates are not necessary to view network programming.
The 28-minute monologue Kimmel delivered Tuesday night after ABC ended his suspension was viewed 20.7 million times on YouTube in 24 hours, more than triple the audience when it aired on ABC.
To Rich Hanley, a long-time journalism professor at Quinnipiac University, the huge YouTube numbers and modest turnout at a hastily organized protest Thursday outside WTNH were evidence of the same thing: the growing irrelevance of local affiliates in viewing television programming.
“Local network affiliates, along with their broadcasting parents, are in steep decline, and I think the fact that the protest was small reflects the size of the audience. It’s diminished greatly as people, particularly folks who are native to the internet, find other sources for news,” Hanley said.
State Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, one of three elected officials who addressed the protesters Thursday, denounced the Trump administration’s role in pressuring Nexstar, which is seeking FCC approval of looser limits on station ownership, to silence Kimmel, a caustic critic of President Donald Trump.
“Some people like Jimmy Kimmel. Some people think he’s funny. Some people don’t think he’s funny,” Lesser said. “If you don’t like what Jimmy Kimmel has to say, change the channel. But it is not — it is not— the White House’s job, it is not the FCC’s job, to tell us who we’re allowed to see on TV.”
The previous day, Gov. Ned Lamont called on WTNH to put Kimmel back on the air.
“I think if you’re a champion of free speech, you want to make sure government is not getting in the way,” Lamont said. “Corporations can’t tell us what’s appropriate in the political sector or not. I want WTNH to get him back on the air.”
ABC and its parent, Disney, announced an indefinite suspension of Kimmel’s show on Sept. 17, a response to criticism over Kimmel’s comments about the man charged in the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. It lifted the suspension five days later, though Nexstar and Sinclair, another significant owner of ABC affiliates, refused to go along.
Brendan Carr, the chair of the FCC, has suggested the government may yet act to force ABC to once against remove Kimmel, and the president threatened a lawsuit against ABC.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., denounced Trump in an appearance Wednesday night on CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“What he suggests is that, you know, speaking against him is an illegal campaign contribution to Democrats. Well, then the entirety of Fox News is one big illegal campaign contribution,” Murphy said.
The Colbert audience laughed and applauded.
“But it’s not,” Murphy continued. “It’s not, because if you want to be a TV network that loads up coverage criticizing the president, you can. If you want to be a TV network that loads up support for the president, you can.”
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is circulating an online petition demanding Carr’s resignation over his threats to strip broadcast licenses from critics.
“That’s not free speech,” Blumenthal said. “That’s authoritarianism. And it cannot stand.”
At the protest, others urged a boycott of advertisers on WTNH, and one said the episode raised questions about whether Nexstar also was willing to interfere in local news coverage, though she pointed to no evidence of it happening.
The episode is awkward for WTNH, whose executives have been advised to stay silent, according to one station official.
The station declined comment on the protest or the scope of calls and emails either protesting or supporting the continued preemption. All questions were referred to a corporate spokesman in Irving, Texas, who did not respond to a request for comment.
Lesser said he had sympathy for WTNH personnel, who had no say in the corporate decision, but the station is the Connecticut face of the publicly traded company, whose stock closed Thursday at $198.10, down $1.20 for the day.
Nexstar has an agreement to acquire a competitor, Tegna, for $6 billion. The deal would give Nexstar a second television station in Connecticut: Tegna’s holdings include FOX61 in Hartford. Without a change in FCC ownership rules, the expanded company would face having to sell some stations.
“Concentration of media ownership is a problem, and if Nexstar is going to buckle to Brendan Carr on this issue, and then they’re able to dominate the Hartford-New Haven region media market, what’s the next issue they’re going to buckle on?” Lesser said. “What is the next issue they’re going to sell us out to on orders from the White House or on orders from the FCC?”
Lesser said he has asked Attorney General William Tong if the acquisition would violate state antitrust law.
Rep. Kaitlyn Shake, D-Stratford, and New Haven Alderman Eli Sabin also addressed the protesters. The protest was organized by the Connecticut Citizen Action Group.
WTNH posted a story about it on its web site.
Trump has mocked Kimmel as having low ratings. His show had averaged about 1.6 million viewers. On Tuesday, even with Nexstar and Sinclair stations refusing to carry him, the broadcast audience exceeded 6 million.
Mark Pazniokas is a reporter for the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2025 @ CT Mirror (ctmirror.org).