Jimmy Kimmel Live! is set to return Tuesday, Sept. 22 — unless your local station belongs to Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Following the announcement the late-night show would return to ABC, Sinclair stood behind their original decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! from their programming.
“Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming,” read a statement shared via X. “Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”
After the show was first suspended on Wednesday, Sept. 17, Sinclair called Kimmel’s remarks “inappropriate” and “deeply insensitive” in a press released shared with People. They then listed a set of demands that needed to be met before the show could return, including a direct apology to the Kirk family, a donation to the family, and a donation to Kirk’s non-profit organization Turning Point USA.
Sinclair ended the press release stating that “regardless of ABC’s plans for the future of the program,” Jimmy Kimmel Live! will not return to air until the company is “confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform.”
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Disney announced the show’s return on Monday, Sept. 22 after their executives came to an agreement with Kimmel on when the show would come back and what he would say upon its return.
“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,” a statement shared by a Disney representative 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.”
The decision came shortly after 400+ artists signed an open letter, published by the American Civil Liberties Union, condemning the suspension of the show. Kimmel also received public support from his fellow late-night hosts, including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, and Seth Meyers.
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Though Sinclair has responded to the show’s suspension being lifted, it is unclear if Nexstar — the other affiliate which pulled the show last week — will air future episodes.
Kimmel has yet to publicly comment on the controversy.
