{"id":239713,"date":"2025-09-19T20:06:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T20:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/239713\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T20:06:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T20:06:17","slug":"how-nexstars-proposed-tv-merger-is-tied-to-jimmy-kimmels-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/239713\/","title":{"rendered":"How Nexstar\u2019s Proposed TV Merger Is Tied to Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s Suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s late night show<\/a> on Wednesday after conservatives expressed outrage over a monologue the host had given two days earlier.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an excerpt from Mr. Kimmel\u2019s monologue:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.<\/p>\n

The suspension was the latest demonstration of how members of the Trump administration have been able to influence the operations of media companies without imposing new policies. In this case, a broadcaster that is pursuing a $6 billion merger, which must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission, put pressure on ABC before the network\u2019s parent company, Disney, announced its decision to suspend Mr. Kimmel\u2019s show.<\/p>\n

1:00 p.m. E.T. on Wednesday, Aug. 5<\/p>\n

Podcast video circulates of the F.C.C. chairman threatening ABC and calling on local affiliates to pull Mr. Kimmel\u2019s program.<\/p>\n

Hours before ABC made the announcement, the F.C.C. chairman, Brendan Carr, said on a right-wing podcast that local ABC stations should \u201cpush back\u201d and \u201cpre-empt\u201d coverage that does not serve \u201ctheir local communities.\u201d (Pre-empting, in broadcast terms, refers to replacing programming with another show in advance of its airing.)<\/p>\n

Mr. Carr also told the podcast\u2019s host, Benny Johnson, that the F.C.C. might take action against ABC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action frankly on Kimmel or you know there’s going to be additional work for the F.C.C. ahead. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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, \u2018Listen, we are going to pre-empt.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

6:11 p.m.<\/p>\n

Nexstar, which owns ABC affiliate stations, announces it will not air Mr. Kimmel\u2019s program.<\/p>\n

After the podcast interview, Nexstar, which owns 32 ABC affiliate stations, announced<\/a> that it would \u201cpre-empt \u2018Jimmy Kimmel Live!\u2019 for the foreseeable future,\u201d and added: \u201cNexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nexstar has good reason to try to appease the F.C.C. at the moment: In August, the company announced that it intended to buy one of its competitors, Tegna, which owns 13 ABC affiliate stations. But in order for the deal to go through, Mr. Carr and the F.C.C. would have to not only approve it, but also potentially raise the nationwide cap on the percentage of households a single entity\u2019s television stations are allowed to reach.<\/p>\n

Broadcasters have pushed the government for decades to raise or repeal the cap, which is currently set at 39 percent. If the Nexstar-Tegna deal goes through, Nexstar\u2019s reach is likely to exceed the limit.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Nexstar\u2019s announcement, Sinclair, a company that owns 31 ABC affiliate stations, said it would also suspend Mr. Kimmel\u2019s program.<\/p>\n

Of ABC\u2019s 205 affiliate stations, 63 are owned by Nexstar and Sinclair, and another 13 are owned by Tegna.<\/p>\n

Sources: The Federal Communications Commission, ABC, Nexstar, Sinclair and Tegna.<\/p>\n

Note: Stations were cross-referenced between ABC\u2019s and affiliates\u2019 lists, and checked against F.C.C. records.<\/p>\n

By The New York Times<\/p>\n

Together, they make up about 37 percent of all of ABC\u2019s local affiliates.<\/p>\n

Approximately 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

ABC says it will suspend Mr. Kimmel\u2019s program \u201cindefinitely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minutes after Nexstar\u2019s announcement, and just hours after Mr. Carr\u2019s podcast appearance, ABC announced that it was suspending Mr. Kimmel\u2019s program \u201cindefinitely.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was unclear how big a role, if any, the plans for pre-empting by Nexstar played in Disney\u2019s decision. (Sinclair did not publicly announce that it would also pre-empt the program until after Disney\u2019s decision was made public.)<\/p>\n

7:00 p.m.<\/p>\n

F.C.C. chairman thanks Nexstar on social media<\/a>, shortly after the company announced it would pre-empt Mr. Kimmel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank Nexstar for doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the outrage over Mr. Kimmel\u2019s comments grew<\/a>, Robert A. Iger, Disney\u2019s chief executive, along with a close lieutenant, had been hearing from worried advertisers, people familiar with the decision told The New York Times this week.<\/p>\n

Last year, Mr. Trump sued ABC\u2019s news division for defamation. ABC settled with the president<\/a> in December, a rare and significant concession by a major news organization as the president grew increasingly antagonistic to media companies he viewed as critical of him and his allies.<\/p>\n

Before Mr. Kimmel\u2019s show was set to begin taping Wednesday, the people familiar with Disney\u2019s decision said, executives had grown concerned that another opening monologue could further inflame the situation. So they made the call for the show to go dark \u2014 at least temporarily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s late night show on Wednesday after conservatives expressed outrage over a monologue the host…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":239714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[128264,128265,5229,128262,128263,60052,628,48218,127271,57861,405,403,5226,5225,92027,5228,5227,16857,83025,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,43818],"class_list":{"0":"post-239713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-abc-inc","9":"tag-acquisitions-and-divestitures","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-benny","12":"tag-brendan-thomas-1979","13":"tag-carr","14":"tag-jimmy","15":"tag-johnson","16":"tag-kimmel","17":"tag-mergers","18":"tag-new-york","19":"tag-new-york-city","20":"tag-newyork","21":"tag-newyorkcity","22":"tag-nexstar-media-group","23":"tag-ny","24":"tag-nyc","25":"tag-regulation-and-deregulation-of-industry","26":"tag-tegna-inc","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-united-states-of-america","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-usa","33":"tag-walt-disney-company"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115232766990637230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}