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Sinclair preempts Jimmy Kimmel Live! after ABC's decision to reinstate. Will Nexstar follow?
Sinclair, which runs 38 ABC affiliates, will preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! with news despite ABC reinstating it. Nexstar is also expected to follow.
After ABC's decision to reinstate Jimmy Kimmel Live! after a week-long suspension over backlash over host Jimmy Kimmel's comments on Charlie Kirk was a much-awaited relief for the fans of the show. But, as the show returns on Tuesday, September 23, not all viewers will be able to watch it.
House after ABC's decision to bring back Kimmel, the Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of ABC's major affiliates in the United States, announced that they will preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! and play news programming in its place. The Sinclair Broadcast Group operates 38 ABC affiliate stations in the US.
"Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming," the statement read. "Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return."
With Sinclair's announcement, it is widely anticipated that the Nexstar Media Group, another of big-name ABC affiliates, will also follow suit in pre-empting 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' However, as of now, the Irving, Texas based group has not made any official announcement.
In fact, it was the Nexstar Media Group who were the first to announce that they were pre-empting Jimmy Kimmel Live! after Jimmy Kimmel's controversial comments on the previous episode of the show. In its statement announcing the return of Kimmel on the network, ABC said that he was suspended because his comments were “ill-timed and hence insensitive.”
Will Nexstar also preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’?
Since the decision to pre-empt, the show was announced by the Disney-owned network, calls for Nexstar to follow suit have grown. Leading far-right commentators, such as Nick Sortor and Erik Daugherty, have called for Nexstar Media Group to take a similar step against Jimmy Kimmel Live! notwithstanding ABC's decision to reinstate it.
Also read: Did Disney lose $4 billion over Jimmy Kimmel row? ABC reinstates late night host after backlash
However, as of now, Nexstar has not announced any plans since the group's last statement on September 18, where they announced they would not carry Jimmy Kimmel's show Here's what Nexstar had said in the statement.
"Nexstar Media Group, Inc today announced that the company’s owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network would preempt 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show," the statement read.
“Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”
