Sinclair has announced it is ending its preemption of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!“
The broadcast group, which owns more than 30 ABC affiliate stations, according to its website, announced Friday afternoon that the show will return to the airwaves on its ABC affiliate stations starting Friday evening.
“Our objective throughout this process has been to ensure that programming remains accurate and engaging for the widest possible audience,” Sinclair wrote in a statement on the decision.
“We take seriously our responsibility as local broadcasters to provide programming that serves the interests of our communities, while also honoring our obligations to air national network programming.”
What Jimmy Kimmel said as he returned to the air after show was preempted
The company added that during the preemption, it “received thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives.”
“We have also witnessed troubling acts of violence, including the despicable incident of a shooting at an ABC affiliate station in Sacramento,” Sinclair continued, saying “these events underscore why responsible broadcasting matters and why respectful dialogue between differing voices remains so important.”
The company said it proposed suggestions to ABC moving forward, including “measures to strengthen accountability, viewer feedback, and community dialogue, including a network-wide independent ombudsman.”
According to the statement, ABC has yet to adopt the measures. Sinclair said it believes “such measures could strengthen trust and accountability.”
The company added, “While we understand that not everyone will agree with our decisions about programming, it is simply inconsistent to champion free speech while demanding that broadcasters air specific content.”
The Walt Disney Co., the parent company of ABC, announced Kimmel would return to its airwaves on Tuesday evening after his late-night show was preempted by the network for nearly a week.
Randy Holmes/Disney – PHOTO: Jimmy Kimmel appears on his show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
After that announcement, Sinclair released a statement of its own, saying then that it would continue to preempt the show.
“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,” Sinclair said at the time.
In a more than 15-minute monologue at the top of the show on Tuesday, Kimmel gave an impassioned defense of free speech, needled the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and President Donald Trump, and explained his previous comments about the response to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
ABC first announced that Kimmel’s show would be preempted “indefinitely” on Sept. 17, following Kimmel’s comments regarding Kirk’s death.
Before the network’s decision to preempt the show was announced last week, FCC Chair Brendan Carr suggested that Kimmel should be suspended over the comments.
“There’s calls for Kimmel to be fired. I think, you know, you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this and again, you know, the FCC is going to have remedies that we could look at,” Carr said on a podcast with conservative commentator Benny Johnson at that time.
Unions that represent entertainment professionals and TV writers condemned the move.
ABC News has reached out to Nexstar, another broadcast group continuing to preempt Kimmel’s show on its ABC affiliates, for comment.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
