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Sinclair Broadcasting said it has reached an agreement with Disney and ABC to return Jimmy Kimmel Live! to its ABC affiliate stations starting Friday night. Even after ABC reinstated Kimmel on Tuesday night, Sinclair and Nexstar preempted his show and said that discussions with Disney were “ongoing.”
Sinclair is restoring Kimmel to its affiliates after making proposals to Disney, including a “network-wide independent ombudsman” at ABC. Despite the proposals, Sinclair will restore Kimmel to its channels without ABC agreeing to them.
“Our objective throughout this process has been to ensure that programming remains accurate and engaging for the widest possible audience,” Sinclair said in a statement. “We take seriously our responsibility as local broadcasters to provide programming that serves the interests of our communities, while also honoring our obligations to air national network programming.”
Together, Sinclair and Nexstar own approximately a quarter of Disney’s ABC affiliates nationwide. Sinclair owns the ABC affiliates in Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Tulsa, San Antonio, and Seattle, as well as dozens of other markets across the country.
Kimmel’s issues started last week, when Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr told a podcast that broadcasters should “stop airing Kimmel’s show,” after his remarks about Kirk. Carr made a not-so-veiled threat to broadcasters, saying, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Moments after Carr made his remarks, Nexstar, the largest station group owner in the country, announced that it was pulling Kimmel from its ABC-affiliated networks. According to Rolling Stone, executives at Disney, ABC, and its affiliated stations gathered for a meeting after Nexstar’s decision, where many of the executives in attendance did not believe that Kimmel had said anything wrong.
Despite that, Disney caved to the pressure from Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcasting, the largest owner of ABC affiliates in the country, to pull Kimmel from the air. Sinclair said that it will not return Kimmel to its stations until “formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability,” and until Kimmel makes a direct apology to the Kirk Family, and for the network makes a significant donation to the family and Turning Point U.S.A.
It does not appear that any of those demands were met, as Sinclair has agreed to put Kimmel back on its ABC stations nationwide.
What do you think of Jimmy Kimmel’s return to Sinclair Broadcasting’s ABC affiliates? Let us know in the comments.