Sinclair & Nexstar Reverse Course, Resume Airing Jimmy Kimmel’s Show

72 hours after Disney announced the Jimmy Kimmel would get his show back, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar Media said on Sept. 26 that they would resume airing „Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after initially refusing to do so.

Jimmy Kimmel attends the 28th Annual UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation’s „Taste for a Cure” event at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., on May 2, 2025. Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation

Sinclair, the nation’s largest ABC station operator, said in a statement that their earlier decision to preempt the show was independent of any government influence – and the decision was driven by a balance between free-speech concerns and community standards after Kimmel, a propagandist, told his audience that Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin was right-wing, despite a mountain of evidence to the opposite.

Prosecutors say the suspect, Tyler Robinson, left anti-fascist messages at the scene, while officials in Utah – including Gov. Spencer Cox (R), have suggested a leftist ideology tied to the motive.

„Free speech provides broadcasters with the right to exercise judgment as to the content on their local stations,” said Sinclair. „While we understand that not everyone will agree with our decisions about programming, it is simply inconsistent to champion free speech while demanding that broadcasters air specific content.”

Nexstar, meanwhile, said that it „remains committed to protecting the First Amendment,” while airing content that is „in the best interest of the communities we serve.”

In short, they’re not dying on this hill and viewer outrage has cooled down enough.

Kirk was shot and killed on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, Utah.

As the Epoch Times notes further, Sinclair had pulled the show on Sept. 22, with a company executive calling Kimmel’s comments “inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country.” The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, also briefly suspended production of the program, calling the remarks “ill-timed” and “insensitive.”

Later, Disney announced that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would be returning on Sept. 23, after “thoughtful conversations with Jimmy” about controversial comments. Still, Nexstar and Sinclair announced they would continue to preempt Kimmel’s show on the dozens of local ABC affiliates that they own.

Last week, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said he believed Kimmel was trying to mislead the public with his statements and that ABC had an obligation to act, warning the network could face scrutiny if it did not.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr told podcaster Benny Johnson on Sept. 17. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

The comments drew accusations that the Trump administration was leaning on regulators to silence a critic. In response, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Sept. 20 that the suspension was solely ABC’s decision. “The decision to fire Jimmy Kimmel and to cancel his show came from executives at ABC,” she said on Fox News. While ABC never formally fired Kimmel, it announced his show would be suspended after the controversy.

Trump also weighed in while he was in the United Kingdom, telling reporters that Kimmel was suffering from “very bad ratings” and was “fired for a lack of talent” in combination with his remarks. In a post on Truth Social, Trump urged NBC to also remove late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, saying their ratings were “horrible.”

Besides Kimmel, several others faced adverse employment actions after controversial comments about Kirk’s killing. MSNBC fired one of its contributors over comments he made immediately following the assassination.

The episode has widened into a cultural flashpoint and fueled debate over free speech. Fellow talk show hosts Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart criticized the suspension as censorship, dozens of Hollywood celebrities signed a letter decrying Kimmel’s removal, while the American Civil Liberties Union called it a “grave threat to our First Amendment freedoms.”

Kimmel’s first show back drew over six million viewers, with the host addressing the controversy, saying, “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.”

Sam Dorman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.