Sinclair will begin preempting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” across its ABC stations starting Tuesday night and substitute the show with “news programming”, Variety has confirmed. Negotiations for the show’s return remain ongoing.
“Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!‘ across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming,” a rep for Sinclair said. “Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”
The move comes as Disney and ABC agree to bring back Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night program to its schedule. Disney said in a statement Monday, “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.”
Disney sidelined Kimmel after Nexstar Media and Sinclair, two major U.S. TV station owners, vowed to preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for the host’s on-air comments about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Those announcements were quickly made after FFC chair Brendan Carr seemed to suggest that broadcasters should penalize Kimmel for his commentary.
Many in the entertainment industry quickly rallied behind the late-night host, including Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Martin Short, who – along with 400 other stars- signed an open letter protesting Disney’s decision to pull Kimmel from the air.
Kimmel’s comeback, to take place Tuesday night, was approved by Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden. Terms of the agreement are still unclear, including whether Kimmel will have to apologize for his comments on Kirk.
Sinclair vowed last week to run a special news report on Charlie Kirk during Kimmel’s slot last week instead of the replacement programming ABC planned to air. But the company ended up moving the special to its streaming platform, and sticking with an ABC game show.
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From Variety US