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Sinclair Inc., the second-largest provider of local news in the country, announced Monday that its ABC affiliates will preempt Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show starting Tuesday.
The company, in a post on the social platform X, said it will replace broadcasts of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” with news programming. Kimmel will return to the air Tuesday, after he was suspended indefinitely by ABC and Disney last Wednesday.
“Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return,” Sinclair added.
Kimmel’s suspension came two days after he accused conservatives of trying to “score political points” off the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk. He also joked that President Trump was grieving the conservative activist’s murder “the way a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
It came shortly after Nexstar Media Group announced it would preempt broadcasts of the comedian’s show on its ABC affiliates. Nexstar, which owns The Hill, is the largest provider of local news in the country.
Prior to the decisions from ABC/Disney and Nexstar, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr told conservative commentator Benny Johnson last Wednesday that stations should “step up and say this garbage to the extent that that’s what comes down the pipe in the future isn’t something that we think serves the needs of our local communities.”
Carr later expressed support for Kimmel’s suspension, saying on X that broadcasters “have long retained the right to not air national programs that they believe are inconsistent with the public interest, including their local communities’ values.”
Carr’s comments were met with backlash from FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez and lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including Republican Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Mitch McConnell.
A group of Senate Democrats on the Senate Commerce, Transportation and Technology Committee also wrote a letter to Cruz, the committee’s chair, requesting he call the FCC chair to testify before the committee. The letter also said Carr “threatened to use the regulatory power of the FCC,” and requested that the FCC chair testify to the committee.”
On Monday, though, Carr accused Democrats of leading a “campaign of projection and distortion” regarding the FCC’s role in Kimmel’s suspension.
In a statement shared with multiple media outlets, Disney said it suspended Kimmel to “avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for the country.”