Sinclair Broadcasting Group, the largest owner of ABC affiliate stations in the country, says it will not air Jimmy Kimmel Live when the series returns to air on Tuesday.
“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 broadcasting company shared in a social media post on Monday.
The move makes good on the company’s earlier promise to keep host Jimmy Kimmel off the air “until we are confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform.”
Following ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live due to comments the host made about Charlie Kirk in the wake of the conservative activist’s death, Sinclair insisted that Kimmel needed to “issue a direct apology” and even “make a meaningful personal donation” to the Kirk family.
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for ABC.
During the Sept. 15 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, the veteran late night emcee said of Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old suspect in Kirk’s killing, “We had 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 with everything they can to score political points from it.”
The fallout from that comment was swift, with ABC suspending the series currently in its 23rd season two days later, and protests rallying around Kimmel cropping up shortly thereafter.
Luke Hales/Getty; John McDonnell/Getty
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On Sept. 17, President Donald Trump declared that after CBS canceled The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and ABC indefinitely suspended Kimmel, their fellow late night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers were next on the chopping block.
Trump’s FCC chair, Brendan Carr, also vowed to “look into” fellow ABC program The View, which features several cohosts that have been notably critical of the president as he vows to crack down on those who publicly criticize him.
