Well, well, well … looks like Sinclair and Nexstar are bringing back “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” beginning Friday. The broadcasters had yanked the late-night show last week over Jimmy Kimmel’s comments about the alleged murderer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the MAGA movement.
The Sept. 26 airing will be a rerun of Tuesday’s show, which marked Kimmel’s official return after ABC’s own temporary suspension.
Protesters picket in response to ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show.
“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,” Sinclair said Friday.
In its statement, the Baltimore-based company emphasized its role as a local broadcaster.
“Our objective throughout this process has been to ensure that programming remains accurate and engaging for the widest possible audience,” Sinclair’s statement reads. “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.”
Meanwhile, Nexstar defended its decision as rooted in its duty to serve local audiences and insisted it acted independently of government pressure.
“We have had discussions with executives at The Walt Disney Company and appreciate their constructive approach to addressing our concerns,” its statement reads. “To be clear, our commitment to those principles has guided our decisions throughout this process, independent of any external influence from government agencies or individuals.”
The move is a quick reversal from just days ago, when Sinclair and Nexstar announced that they would keep Kimmel off the air indefinitely, leaving roughly 20% of the country unable to watch live while talks with Disney were ongoing.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel
So what changed?
For Sinclair, at least, the company says its decision followed “thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders” and pointed to “troubling acts of violence”—including a shooting at an ABC affiliate in Sacramento—as a reminder of why “responsible broadcasting matters.”
But the timing is hard to miss: Kimmel’s Tuesday night monologue racked up more than 9 million YouTube views in the first 10 hours—well above average—suggesting that there’s plenty of demand for the show, regardless of stations blacking it out.
Both Sinclair and Nexstar, of course, insist that ratings weren’t the reason. In its statement, Sinclair says it pushed for “measures to strengthen accountability, viewer feedback, and community dialogue, including a network-wide independent ombudsman,” though Disney hasn’t adopted them.
Kimmel addressed the preemptions during his Tuesday monologue.
“We are still on the air in most of the country, except, ironically, from Washington, D.C., where we have been preempted,” he said. “After almost 23 years on the air, we’re suddenly not being broadcast in 20% of the country, which is not a situation we relish.”
Sinclair initially said that Kimmel needed to apologize to Kirk’s family and make a “meaningful personal donation” to them and to Turning Point USA—demands that seemed unlikely to be met. Maybe Sinclair decided that the headache wasn’t worth it. Or maybe viewers made their point by tuning in online.
Either way, Kimmel is back. And Nexstar and Sinclair’s about-face is a reminder that in the battle between corporate gatekeeping and public demand, the audience still has some power.
