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Nexstar Media, which operates 32 ABC-affiliated stations, has shared that it will continue to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! — following the Walt Disney Company’s announcement that the show will return on Tuesday, Sept. 23.
In a statement shared on Sept. 23 ahead of the airing, the largest local TV broadcasting and media company in the U.S. reiterated its decision to preempt the program following comments that host Jimmy Kimmel made on air about the fatal shooting of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.
“We made a decision last week to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! following what ABC referred to as Mr. Kimmel’s ‘ill-timed and insensitive’ comments at a critical time in our national discourse. We stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve,” Nexstar said in the statement.
“In the meantime, we note that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be available nationwide on multiple Disney-owned streaming products, while our stations will focus on continuing to produce local news and other programming relevant to their respective markets.”
Michael Le Brecht/Disney via Getty
The comments from Nexstar come as Sinclair, the broadcasting company that makes up the nation’s largest ABC affiliate group, similarly announced that it would be “preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming.” Nexstar and Sinclair both condemned Kimmel for comments he made about Kirk on his Monday, Sept. 15 episode.
Since then, the Walt Disney Company announced on Sept. 22 that Kimmel would be back on air the following day. “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,” the statement read.
“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.”
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was initially pulled off the air on Sept. 17, when an ABC spokesperson told PEOPLE at the time it would be on pause “indefinitely.”
Two days prior, Kimmel made the following statement in his monologue about the killing of 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,” Kimmel said. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving. On Friday, the White House flew the flags at half staff, which got some criticism, but on a human level, you can see how hard the president is taking this.”
The show cut to a clip of the press asking President Donald Trump how he was holding up. “I think very good,” Trump replied. “And by the way, right there where you see all the trucks, they just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House.”
Trump continued discussing the ballroom plans, saying the result would “be a beauty,” before the cameras then cut back to Kimmel: “Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief, construction.”
In the wake of Kirk’s murder, Kimmel offered condolences to Kirk’s family on social media, writing, “Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.”
The Kimmel pull and subsequent return to air comes as Nexstar recently announced plans to acquire Tegna, a rival broadcast company, for more than $6 billion. The deal itself would further consolidate the local television landscape and put Nexstar in 80% of America’s TV-owning households, according to a press release, despite current law permitting no more than 39%.
The acquisition will require final approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which Brendan Carr runs under President Donald Trump’s appointment. Carr praised Nexstar on pressuring ABC to remove Kimmel last week, writing on X that “it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community values.”
Disney’s Monday announcement followed the release of an open letter from American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), signed by over 400 figures in entertainment, defending the constitutional right to free speech.
