Jimmy Kimmel Live! is set to return tonight (September 23) following its suspension last week, but ABC affiliates Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group have said they’ll refuse to air the show on the TV stations they own.
Per the New York Times, they own more than 20% of local ABC affiliate stations between them.
Both groups are conservative, with Sinclair executive chairman David Smith telling then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016 (via The Guardian), “We are here to deliver your message,” and Nexstar Media Group being major Republican donors.
Nexstar said it will “monitor” the show as it returns but that its stations will “focus on continuing to produce local news and other programming relevant to their respective markets,” while Sinclair’s vice-chairman Jason Smith said, “Mr Kimmel’s remarks were inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country.”
ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which has run since 2003, on September 17 after comments the comedian made on the show following the murder of Charlie Kirk.
Disney announces ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ will return on Tuesday:
“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… pic.twitter.com/llM6BDaRa0
— Pop Base (@PopBase) September 22, 2025
Kirk was shot in the neck and killed at Utah Valley University’s campus on September 10, and, following the incident, Kimmel suggested that the signs pointed to Kirk’s shooter being a Trump supporter.
He said on his show on September 15, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterise this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
The fallout saw the ABC Network, owned by Disney, take the show off-air indefinitely, a move that proved divisive, with Trump being among those to celebrate the news. In contrast, most of Hollywood’s labour unions reacted with anger, while the likes of David Letterman, Olivia Rodrigo and Pedro Pascal also spoke out against it.
Brendan Carr, the chair of broadcast regular the Federal Communications Commission, said (via BBC) that Kimmel was “appearing to directly mislead the American public” and accused him of “the sickest conduct possible”.
Carr told the conservative podcast the Benny Show, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Just as the news of Kimmel’s suspension divided opinion, so has the news of his return. Andrew Kolvet, an executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show, wrote on X (Twitter) that “Disney and ABC caving and allowing Kimmel back on the air is not surprising, but it’s their mistake to make.”
He then added that “Nexstar and Sinclair do not have to make the same choice.”
Conservative commentator Auron MacIntyre urged his followers to contact ABC affiliates and sponsors, including Mercedes-Benz, Target and Sirius XM, before thanking Nexstar for standing against “leftist political violence”.
Other famous figures have welcomed Kimmel’s return, however, with fellow late-night host Stephen Colbert describing it as “wonderful news” for his “dear friend Jimmy and his amazing staff.”
In its statement yesterday, the Walt Disney Company said: “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.”
The post Conservative ABC affiliates are refusing to air ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s return after Charlie Kirk controversy appeared first on NME.
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