Jimmy Kimmel is resuming hosting duties for his show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” tonight, but many viewers across the country won’t be able to watch his return to TV on ABC when the show airs live at 11:35 p.m. PT/ET on Tuesday, September 23. That includes Portland’s Sinclair-owned affiliate KATU (channel 2).
Quick answer: If you live in Oregon’s KATU broadcast region, you can only watch the full Tuesday episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Hulu (free trial) streaming the day after it airs (Wednesday), or you can watch Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue tonight on YouTube shortly after it airs (this should be some time after 8:30 p.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday).
ABC news stations owned by Sinclair and Nexstar Media Group are openly refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel’s return to TV on their stations for the foreseeable future. Those ABC affiliates will instead run “news programming” to preempt Kimmel’s show, “pending assurances that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve.”
With those companies combined, Nexstar and Sinclair run roughly 25 percent of the ABC affiliates across the country. Here’s a look at the map of stations that will not broadcast “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” tonight. Is your city on this list?
Where can I find tonight’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on TV, or streaming free on demand tonight?
If you live outside the Portland metro area and other regions run by Sinclair and Nexstar Media Group, you can watch “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for free tonight using any of the following methods:
Fubo (free trial)
DirecTV (free trial)
Watch live over the air for free with the help of a HDTV antenna.
If you live in a market that is serviced by a news station that is owned by Sinclair or Nexstar, there are no straightforward ways you can watch the show live on TV tonight. Here are your best options to watch and see what Kimmel has to say, and the rest of tonight’s episode, for free:
If you own a VPN, or want to sign up for a VPN like ExpressVPN, Cyber Ghost or NordVPN you can use this service to change your registered home location to outside of a Sinclair or Nexstar-owned media market and watch on ABC using your cable provider login or free trial to a streaming service like the ones we outlined above.
You can watch Jimmy Kimmel’s much-anticipated opening monologue shortly after it airs on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! YouTube page. You’ll also get a few interview clips and any big moments with this method, but not the full episode.
You can watch the full episode streaming for free the following day (Wednesday) when you sign up for a free trial of the Hulu streaming service.
Why was Jimmy Kimmel suspended by ABC?
Disney reversed the suspension on Monday, explaining in a statement per Variety, “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. 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.”
Sources told the New York Post that Kimmel will address the controversy during Tuesday’s monologue, but will not apologize.