Local TV stations say they will not air Jimmy Kimmel Live! despite Disney-owned ABC bringing back the comedian’s late-night show – a week after he was suspended for comments about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Nexstar and Sinclair, which together run dozens of stations affiliated to ABC, said they would continue to replace the show with regular programming on Tuesday.
“Mr Kimmel’s remarks were inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country,” Sinclair’s vice-chairman Jason Smith said.
The liberal comedian’s show was yanked off air last week after his monologue about the shooting of Kirk caused uproar.
Nextstar, one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the US, said in a statement on Tuesday: “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.”
Earlier on Monday, Sinclair said it would 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,” it said in a statement.
Nexstar and Sinclair together control more than 20% of ABC’s affiliated television stations, according to the New York Times.
Kimmel said in his monologue on 15 September that Trump and his allies were “desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them” and trying to “score political points from it”.
He also likened Trump’s reaction to the influencer’s murder to “how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish”.
America’s broadcast regulator accused Kimmel of misleading viewers because officials said the 22-year-old man accused of murdering Kirk in Utah was “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology”.
Disney, which owns the US broadcast network that airs Jimmy Kimmel Live!, announced on Monday that the show would return.
It said it had suspended the show because “some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive”.
“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,” Disney said.
The comic’s suspension came after threats by the federal TV regulator to revoke ABC’s broadcast licence, sparking a nationwide debate.
Critics decried the move as censorship and attacked ABC and its parent company Disney for appearing to bow to pressure from the Trump administration.
On Monday, hundreds of celebrities including Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro signed a letter backing Kimmel, and called his suspension a “dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation”.
US President Donald Trump had welcomed Kimmel’s suspension and suggested some TV networks should have their licences “taken away” for negative coverage of the White House.
On Friday, police arrested a man for firing a gun into the lobby of an ABC news affiliate in Sacramento, California.
Federal prosecutors found a note in his car saying “they’re next”, which investigators said they believe referred to Trump administration officials.
