- FCC chair Brendan Carr says that ABC-affiliated stations refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel Live‘s return to air is “a good thing.”
- Carr previously called on local TV stations to “push back” against ABC and its parent company, Disney.
- The chair also accused Democrats of “projection and distortion.”
The chair of the FCC is speaking out about ABC affiliate groups that are refusing to broadcast Jimmy Kimmel Live amid the late-night show’s planned return to air.
Brendan Carr, who assumed office in the Federal Communications Commission in January following a nomination from Donald Trump, defended media groups like Sinclair and Nexstar after they decided to continue preempting Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show on their stations despite ABC’s parent company, Disney, ending the show’s nationwide suspension.
“This is the first time recently that any local TV stations have pushed back on a national programmer like Disney,” Carr wrote on social media Tuesday. “And that is a good thing because we want want empowered local TV stations. After all, local TV stations — not the national programmers — have public interest obligations, and they should be making decisions that in their view meets the needs of their local communities.”
Representatives for ABC and Kimmel didn’t immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment on Carr’s remarks.
Disney/Randy Holmes
Carr’s statement came as a response to a post from California State Senator Scott Wiener, who had reacted to Sinclair’s announcement that it would not broadcast Kimmel’s return by saying, “Can’t wait to break Sinclair up. Corporate media consolidation doesn’t jibe with democracy. And although Sinclair isn’t a fan of democracy, most people are.”
Carr accused Democrats like Wiener of “projection and distortion,” claiming that liberals have “spent years illegally weaponizing government to silence dissent” and that they “want to blame anything other than Disney and their local TV stations for Kimmel’s suspension.”
Prior to ABC announcing Kimmel’s suspension last week, Carr called for affiliate groups to “step up” and reject ABC’s “garbage” programming, arguing that it does not serve the public interest following Kimmel’s remarks about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer.
“I think that it’s really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say, ‘Listen, we are going to preempt— we are not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out,'” he opined on The Benny Show.
Shortly after that, Nexstar and Sinclair both announced that they would preempt Kimmel’s show, with the latter company demanding that Kimmel apologize and personally donate to Kirk’s family and organization.
That same day, Carr praised Nexstar’s preemption of Kimmel. “I want to thank Nexstar for doing the right thing,” he wrote on social media. “Local broadcasters have an obligation to serve the public interest. While this may be an unprecedented decision, it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community values. I hope that other broadcasters follow Nexstar’s lead.”
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Nexstar recently proposed a $6.2 billion acquisition of rival TV company Tegna, which would create a monopoly of 265 stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, expanding the company’s reach to 80 percent of U.S. households. Nexstar currently owns 32 ABC affiliates out of 200. The acquisition would require government approval.
Sinclair has also lobbied for deregulation, with FCC records showing that CEO Chris Ripley met with Carr last month. The company announced last month that it is exploring the possibility of acquisitions.
