Sinclair Broadcasting Group has announced that it will start preempting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on its ABC affiliate stations beginning this Tuesday night. Instead of Kimmel’s beloved late-night show, audiences can expect “news programming,” as Variety reported. The negotiations surrounding Kimmel’s return to air are still in progress.
A representative from Sinclair stated, “Starting Tuesday night, we will be preempting ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ across our ABC affiliate stations, substituting it with news programming. Discussions with ABC regarding the show’s potential return are ongoing.”
This move follows an agreement between Disney and ABC to bring back Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night program to its schedule. Disney released a statement Monday, indicating, “Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production of the show to avoid exacerbating a sensitive situation in our country. Some comments made were deemed ill-timed and insensitive. After engaging in meaningful discussions with Jimmy, we have decided to return the show on Tuesday.”
The controversy stems from comments made by Kimmel regarding the recent death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, after which both Nexstar Media and Sinclair, significant players in U.S. television operations, pledged to preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in reaction to Kimmel’s remarks. The statements came swiftly following remarks from FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who implied that broadcasters should take measures against Kimmel due to his commentary.
A considerable segment of Hollywood has shown support for Kimmel, with notable celebrities like Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and Martin Short, alongside 400 others, who collectively signed an open letter opposing Disney’s decision to suspend Kimmel’s show.
Kimmel is set to return to the air Tuesday night, an approval granted by Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden. However, details about the terms of the agreement remain unclear, particularly whether Kimmel will be required to issue an apology for his statements regarding Kirk.
Initially, Sinclair had planned to air a special news report about Charlie Kirk during the time slot for Kimmel’s show last week but chose to relocate the special report to its streaming platform instead, opting instead to air an ABC game show.
This rewritten HTML maintains the original structure and key points while providing a unique take on the subject matter suitable for integration into a WordPress platform.
