Sinclair Broadcasting Group doubled down on Monday, saying that despite an agreement reached earlier in the day by ABC and late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel, their ABC affiliates would not air “Jimmy Kimmel Live” when it returns to ABC on Tuesday.
Sinclair owns nearly 40 ABC affiliates across the country — including one in the nation’s capital — and while those affiliates will preempt Kimmel’s show for the time being, the broadcasting group released a statement indicating that a deal could be reached in the future.
Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming. Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return. pic.twitter.com/beGC6VID2x
— Sinclair, Inc. (@WeAreSinclair) September 22, 2025
“Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming. Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return,” the statement read.
Sinclair’s statement came just hours after ABC parent-company Disney announced that Kimmel’s show would return on Tuesday after several days off the air.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday,” a spokesperson for Disney told Fox News Digital.
Kimmel landed in timeout several days earlier after backlash over comments he made about the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” said Kimmel at the time.
Shortly after his comments went viral, both Nexstar and Sinclair announced plans to preempt the comedian’s show. The two broadcast companies own or control nearly 80 ABC affiliates between them.
