Nexstar, the owner of numerous local ABC affiliate stations, is holding firm on its pledge not to show Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show after the host lied about Charlie Kirk’s assassin.
Nexstar’s announcement comes one day after Sinclair, another owner of local affiliates, made the same move, bringing the total number of affiliates that will not broadcast Jimmy Kimmel Live! to 66.
That covers about 25 percent of ABC’s total viewership, according to Fox Business’s Elizabeth MacDonald, and roughly 33 to 40 percent of Kimmel’s viewers. Nextstar is the country’s largest local television broadcasting organization and delivers its content to about 220 million people via “more than 200 owned or partnered stations,” according to a press release from the company.
“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,” Nexstar said in a statement. “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.”
Kimmel’s statements were not just “ill-timed and insensitive,” as network ABC and its owner Disney would have Americans believe — they were malicious lies in order to launder the idea that Kirk’s assassin was actually a Trump supporter, despite overwhelming evidence that he was a violent left-wing terrorist.
While Disney initially decided to suspend Kimmel, it only took five days for the corporate media giant to reinstate him for his first show back, airing Tuesday evening. Perhaps with the drop in viewership, Kimmel’s ratings will drop even lower than they already were, and he can be booted off the air for good.
Nexstar’s decision is an example of local affiliate owners re-taking control of the content they broadcast from a Hollywood that hates most of the people actually watching their stations. As Nexstar said in its press release, “our stations will focus on continuing to produce local news and other programming relevant to their respective markets.”
As The Federalist reported, local affiliate owners are looking for reforms from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that could allow them to consolidate resources and create localized, community-driven content that actually advances their public interest obligation as required (but not typically enforced) by the FCC.
Despite fake whining from leftists that kicking Kimmel’s chronically unfunny show off the air is a “free speech” concern, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has said he is looking into actually enforcing the public interest obligation for the privilege of using public airwaves.
Reforms from the FCC could allow these right-of-center affiliate owners to produce much more high-quality content that it can air instead of the drivel from big Hollywood that is forced upon them.
Hollywood is able to make money off that content, which is often cultureless and socially destructive, by having power over affiliates that are supposed to air it. That money is then used to fund even more of the far-left propaganda it is notorious for producing.
As Nathan Leamer, CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies and former policy advisor to former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, told The Federalist, “They recognize that they need to grab every dollar, and they do not want conservatives to be able to push back and tell their story through different narratives.”
The result could be yet another advance for conservatives in taking back control over the media space and creating content that Americans want to see, while enriching American culture.
Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.