Disney’s ABC said it will showcase its “indefinitely” schedule in Jimmy Kimmel’s popular late-night schedule after Nexstar Media, one of the biggest owners of US television stations, said it was intended to pre-empt the program’s broadcast after making a statement about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Nexstar said Wednesday that it “strongly opposed Kimmel’s recent comments on the murder of Charlie Kirk, replacing the show with other programming in the ABC-related market.”
In his monologue on Monday night, Kimmel said the “Maga Gang” was about to score political points from Kirk’s murder. Kirk, a well-known conservative activist, was shot dead on September 10th during a discussion at Utah Valley University. Three days later, authorities announced they had arrested the suspected gunman.
“We hit a new low over the weekend with the Magga gang trying to characterise this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as something other than one of them,” Kimmel said. He also enjoyed President Trump’s response to questions from the press about Trump’s death after he discussed the construction of the new White House ballroom.
Disney’s piloting could further inflame the partisanship of America regarding Kirk’s assassination. Activists are considered heroes by many, and some prominent conservatives want to silence critics of his work, no matter how subtle the argument becomes. Some liberals have problems with Kirk’s stance, pointing to the extreme stance he took.
Kimmel’s representatives were unable to contact us for immediate comment.
It wasn’t the only party that held Disney weight. FCC Chairman Brendan Kerr threatened to take action against ABC on Thursday. After Disney’s decision was revealed, he said in a social media statement that he “want to thank the Next Star for doing the right thing.” “Local broadcasters have an obligation to serve the public interest. This may be an unprecedented decision, but it is important for broadcasters to determine that pushing back Disney programming is not enough to the community.”
Nexstar is in the midst of trying to acquire Tegna Inc., the owner of another large television station, for $6.2 billion. This has declined to comment on whether the pending transaction played a role in the company’s decision-making by the FCC.
Regardless of Nexstar’s motivation, the decision to preempt “Kimmel” will have a major impact on Disney and ABC. Nexstar owns or operates 32 different ABC stations and is strong in markets such as New Orleans, Salt Lake City and Nashville. Without a true national distribution, “Kimmel” ratings would sink, and ABC would struggle to justify the show’s current price to advertisers. ABC generated approximately $76.6 million in ads from “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in 2024, according to Ispot TV, a TV audience and ad spending tracker.
Supporters of free speech discovered Kimmel’s bench was worried. “Jimmy Kimmel is the latest target of the Trump administration’s unconstitutional plan to silence critics and control what Americans see and read. The biggest owners of ABC and its affiliate stations have given Trump FCC chair exactly what he wanted by stopping Kimmel indefinitely and dropping the show, facing the threat.”
Disney’s decision to broadcast Kimmel has highlighted how traditional media companies have become a time, a scary traditional media company, when comments and legal pushbacks hit the White House and the Federal Communications Commission with individual reports. In recent months, President Trump has sued both ABC News and CBS News over comments by ABC News anchor George Stephanopulos and compiled an interview with former US vice president Kamala Harris in “60 Minutes.” In both cases, the corporation agreed to pay a multi-million dollar settlement, despite the legal case being considered very thin by experts.
In another era, late-night hosts were more measured in their commentary. Johnny Carson became famous for holding his own politics to himself, enjoying someone who happened to be in the White House. However, in recent years, hot talk and political humor have driven social media chatter and viral paths and promoted evaluation. Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” on CBS is the most viewed on TV’s late-night programme as it follows the theme that hosts comment on the latest headlines. Because of most of Colbert’s tenure on television, President Trump was at the heart of them.
Such dynamics may be poised to end. Paramount has come out of late-night business and cancels Colbert’s “Late Show” in May. The company cited the recession in advertising, but there are still suspicions that Paramount’s new leader, David Ellison, wants to curb political snipers and is eager to meet more conservative bases.
Disney has navigated these waters in the past, leaving late-night hosts to sink. In 2001, Bill Maher told viewers in another late-night program episode, “Political Wrong.” He said the US was “co-disordered” in dealing with other parts of the world, and that could have been a factor in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York that year. ABC continued to air the shows, but advertisers began balking. “Political Wrong” was cancelled in June 2002, and Maher was later successful in HBO’s new program, “Real Time.”
