ABC’s late-night lineup just took a jolt—one that’s rippling through TV, politics, and free-speech circles. On Wednesday, Nexstar Media Group said its ABC-affiliated stations will preempt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” “for the foreseeable future,” beginning that night, after Kimmel’s on-air remarks about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The move effectively removes Kimmel in a swath of U.S. markets where Nexstar controls the late-night ABC feed, even as ABC’s network schedule technically still lists the show.
In broadcast terms, a preemption isn’t a cancellation; it’s a local affiliate choosing not to air a scheduled network program and substituting something else. Because Nexstar owns or operates dozens of ABC affiliates, the decision instantly pulls the show from many homes—potentially millions of viewers—while ABC’s owned-and-operated stations in cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago may still carry it. Practically, that fragments the audience and ad impressions enough to feel like a shutdown in large parts of the country. Affiliates routinely preempt for breaking news, storm coverage, or sports runovers. Doing so “for the foreseeable future” over editorial content is unusual, and that’s why this has drawn so much attention.
The chain of events moved fast. On Monday’s show, Kimmel criticized attempts to politicize the killing of Charlie Kirk, questioned the propriety of lowering flags to half-staff, and mocked Donald Trump’s response, quipping it resembled “how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.” Backlash poured in on social platforms and conservative media. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, in an interview with YouTuber Benny Johnson, urged affiliates to reconsider airing the program and warned stations could face scrutiny if they ran content that, in his words, showed a “pattern of news distortion.” By midweek, Nexstar announced its ABC stations would drop Kimmel indefinitely. From London, where he’s on a state visit, Trump cheered the development on Truth Social, calling Kimmel a “loser” with “zero talent” and prodding NBC to do the same with other late-night hosts. Trade reporting indicated Kimmel planned to address the uproar on Wednesday—clarifying his remarks but not apologizing—before the preemption took effect in Nexstar markets.
A lot of headlines tossed around “FCC” and “licenses,” so it’s worth clarifying the legal gray zone. The FCC does not punish broadcast stations for political viewpoints or satire; it enforces technical rules and certain content standards like obscenity and time-of-day indecency. A late-night monologue’s political commentary is almost always protected speech. Commissioners can talk, but they cannot unilaterally revoke a license. Licenses renew on a timetable, and “news distortion” cases are rare and hinge on willful fabrication, not opinionated framing. Affiliates, however, can choose what to air under their contracts. That’s the pressure point here: less Washington, more the business relationship between a network and its station groups.
Preempting a franchise program is also a big economic call. Late-night shows are relatively inexpensive per hour and deliver consistent audiences. They drive digital clips and social chatter that lift a network’s brand. Pulling Kimmel in key markets reduces ad reach, complicates national buys with make-goods and rate adjustments, and hands oxygen to competitors or syndicated reruns in those slots. ABC now faces a delicate calculus: push to keep the show universally on air and risk affiliate friction, or ride out a patchwork schedule and hope habits don’t shift permanently.
Culturally, Kimmel has long mixed jokes with pointed political jabs—gun control monologues, healthcare advocacy, and frequent shots at Trump and MAGA figures. Fans call it conscience; critics call it propaganda. Affiliate groups live in both worlds: they answer to local advertisers and communities with diverging politics. That’s why this feels like a test case. If a station group can turn down a marquee network show over editorial tone, will others follow when a host targets their side, or will the blowback and audience migration to streaming clips make this a one-off?
Reactions are fractured. Free-speech advocates warn that preemptions over political commentary chill expression, especially when paired with public threats of regulatory pain. Conservative commentators celebrate the move as overdue pushback against what they view as one-sided “news distortion” wrapped in comedy. Media analysts note the power shift: consolidated station groups can squeeze national programming, accelerating the balkanization of broadcast TV. Advertisers are watching quietly, running brand-safety checks and weighing whether to reallocate late-night budgets to digital, where targeting is cleaner and controversy less contagious.
For viewers in affected markets, the post-news slot will fill with alternate programming—classic sitcoms, syndicated talk, or local specials. Many will catch Kimmel’s bits the next morning on YouTube and social apps; others will simply change habits. The longer this lasts, the more likely those habits stick, and habit is late night’s oxygen.
Kimmel has options. He can deliver the monologue he intended and push it digitally, letting the internet judge. He can stay the course and let corporate diplomacy work. ABC and Nexstar could quietly map a return with a time-limited détente, no public mea culpa. A pivot to a softer political edge seems unlikely; it would placate some affiliates but risk alienating his core audience.
This isn’t just about a comedian. It’s about who holds the remote to America’s 11:35 p.m. conversation: network HQ in New York or the station group in your city. In streaming, a host and a platform settle that instantly. In broadcast, the triangle—network, affiliate, regulator—still matters, and moments like this expose the fault lines. For now, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is dark in a patchwork of markets, lit in others, and loud everywhere online. Whether it returns uniformly will depend less on Washington than on boardrooms—and on whether viewers care enough to demand it back where it’s gone missing.
