Two of America’s largest TV operators, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar, have chosen not to air Jimmy Kimmel Live! upon its Tuesday return, bringing attention to the influential media moguls controlling these broadcast giants.

Together, Sinclair and Nexstar own almost a quarter of ABC’s local affiliate stations nationwide, yet they opted out of airing Kimmel’s show following his suspension over remarks about Charlie Kirk’s killing. 

In his extended monologue on Tuesday, Kimmel accused the Trump administration of attempting to pressure local affiliates into removing his show from the airwaves in their broadcast regions.

The top executives at both Sinclair and Nexstar have previously sided with President Donald Trump over his criticism of what he considers a left-wing media bias. 

One of the men, Sinclair executive chairman David D. Smith, is a staunch conservative who told Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign: ‘We are here to deliver your message. Period.’

Smith, who records show donated $250,000 to Kirk’s Turning Point USA just last year, produced bootleg porn movies early in his career and was once caught having sex with a prostitute in a company Mercedes.

The 75-year-old has been Baltimore-based Sinclair’s executive chairman since 1990, after taking over the company from his father.

Today, it is the second-largest television station operator in the country, with nearly 300 stations and 38 ABC affiliates.

David D. Smith, 75, has been Baltimore-based Sinclair’s executive chairman since 1990, after inheriting the company from his father 

During Jimmy Kimmel’s lengthy monologue on Tuesday, he said the Trump administration ‘tried to coerce the affiliates who run our show in the cities that you live in to take my show off the air’ 

After the 9/11 attacks, the company instructed its anchors to repeat editorials in support of President George W. Bush’s ‘war on terror,’ according to Nieman Reports. 

It also aired claims from group opposing 2004 Democratic presidential nominee anti-John Kerry that the media company’s own Washington bureau chief called ‘biased political propaganda.’

In 2018, Sinclair stations ran attack ads against Barack Obama that other networks including Fox News refused to air.

Smith is an active contributor to conservative causes and organizations, donating six-figure sums to Project Veritas and Moms for Liberty, according to Nieman Reports. 

He has personally donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the political campaigns of Baltimore Republicans, as well as giving to both Democratic and Republican US senators.

In 2024, he purchased the Baltimore Sun, spawning a series of complaints from the paper’s union and staff exits as the publication took a more conservative tack in its coverage.

In 1996, Smith was arrested for receiving oral sex from a prostitute in Baltimore while driving a brand-new Mercedes-Benz registered to Sinclair, the Baltimore Sun reported at the time.

He was busted during an undercover sting operation after the sex worker spotted Smith and informed police that ‘she had just seen her regular date driving in the area.’ 

In 1996, David D. Smith was arrested for receiving oral sex from a prostitute in Baltimore while driving a brand-new Mercedes-Benz registered to Sinclair (pictured: Smith in 1998)

The woman then got into Smith’s car, which police followed onto the highway before witnessing her performing the sex act as Smith drove.

He was convicted of a misdemeanor sex offense, taking a plea deal that stipulated Smith admit to his crime during a broadcast on his flagship TV station, Salon reported.

Instead, he had an anchor read the confession during a broadcast.

Decades earlier, in the 1970s, Smith worked as a partner in a business that produced copies of pornographic films in a building owned by one of his father’s companies, Rolling Stone reported. 

His partner at the time said the business folded after police raided the operation and confiscated films, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Smith did not respond to a request for comment made by the Daily Mail through a company representative.

Nexstar CEO Perry Sook founded his company in 1996 after buying a single station in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and growing it over the years into the biggest TV station operator in the country

Nexstar CEO Perry Sook founded his company in 1996 after buying a single station in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and growing it over the years into the biggest TV station operator in the country. 

In addition to having stations in major markets like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, Nexstar owns the cable network NewsNation, a controlling stake in The CW network, and online publication The Hill.

Sook has been known to donate to political campaigns from both sides of the aisle, including those of Schumer, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

When Trump was reelected, Sook expressed hope that the new administration would help Nexstar expand, promising to help eliminate ‘the level of activist journalism out there.’

In August, the company announced a planned $6.2billion acquisition of broadcaster Tegna that would give Nexstar dozens more stations across the country.

The deal requires approval by the Federal Communications Commission, whose commissioner, Brendan Carr, condemned Kimmel’s comments before Nexstar and Sinclair decided to remove his show.

The merger would give Nexstar market coverage across about 80 percent of the US, while current FCC rules limit a single company’s share to just 39 percent.   

In 2017, a female editor at one of Sook’s Michigan stations filed a lawsuit alleging that he ignored complaints of sexual harassment she made against two male staffers.

Kimmel’s show was pulled after the host made controversial comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk

Jimmy Kimmel Live! returned on Tuesday after a nearly weeklong suspension

The CEO traveled to the station in Lansing after the editor complained and she claimed Sook told employees to email him any concerns, Lansing State Journal reported. His lawyers denied that he extended the invitation.

Attorneys for the editor claimed that Sook ‘injected himself into the ineffective investigation’ and that management at the station began an ‘adversarial relationship’ with her following her complaints, which led to her firing. 

The editor claimed Sook was ‘simply too busy to be bothered by the trivial matter of caring about a career television woman who exposed sexual harassment at Nexstar.’

A judge ruled in Nexstar’s favor in 2020.

Sook also did not respond to a request for comment made by the Daily Mail through a company representative.