The indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show has brought into focus the influence and power wielded by Nexstar and Sinclair, the nation’s two largest local TV operators.
ABC moved to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday after criticism from Nexstar and Sinclair, which in turn were responding to remarks from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr.
Jasmine Bloemhof, a media strategist who has worked with local stations owned by Sinclair and Nexstar, told the Associated Press that consolidation has given such companies “enormous influence.”
Controversies like the latest involving Kimmel, she said, “reveal the tension between Hollywood-driven programming and the values of everyday Americans.”
“Networks may push one agenda, but affiliates owned by companies like Sinclair and Nexstar understand they serve conservative-leaning communities across the country,” Bloemhof said. “And that friction is bound to surface.”
Carr, a President Donald Trump appointee, had seemingly threatened ABC, its parent company Disney, and Kimmel over his monologue.
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said during an episode of commentator Benny Johnson’s YouTube show on Wednesday. “Disney needs to see some change here, but the individual licensed stations that are taking their content, it’s time for them to step up and say this, you know, garbage to the extent that that’s what comes down the pipe in the future isn’t something that we think serves the needs of our local communities.”
Carr added there were calls for Kimmel to be fired.
“I think you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this,” he said.
Reminding affiliates that their broadcast licenses come with an “obligation to operate in the public interest,” Carr said, “it’s time for them to step up” and say Kimmel’s content “isn’t something that we think serves the needs of our local communities.”
Following Carr’s interview, Nexstar, the country’s largest local broadcasting group, announced that it would stop airing the show “for the foreseeable future.”
“Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue,” Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said in statement that echoed Carr’s comments.
Critics have called out the timing of Nexstar’s public pushback.
The company is seeking approval from the FCC to acquire Tegna, another media company. The $6.2 billion deal would turn Nexstar-Tegna into a mega company whose reach would grow to 80% of U.S. households. The problem is that there’s a broadcasting rule that prevents any one company from reaching more than 39% of U.S. households. That means Nexstar needs the FCC to sign off on the merger and change the rule, or its mega deal can’t go through.
Carr, who has signaled that he is open to ending “artificial limits” on station ownership, applauded Nexstar’s decision to preempt Kimmel’s show.
“I want to thank Nexstar for doing the right thing,” he posted on X. “Local broadcasters have an obligation to serve the public interest. While this may be an unprecedented decision, it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming that they determine falls short of community values. I hope that other broadcasters follow Nexstar’s lead.”
Soon after Carr’s post, Sinclair, another owner of local TV stations, said it would also suspend Kimmel’s program, and called on Kimmel to apologize and “make a meaningful personal donation” to Kirk’s family and the political group he founded, Turning Point USA.
“Regardless of ABC’s plans for the future of the program, Sinclair intends not to return Jimmy Kimmel Live! to our air until we are confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform,” the company said in a statement.
Sinclair Vice Chairman Jason Smith said, “Kimmel’s remarks were inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country.”
“We believe broadcasters have a responsibility to educate and elevate respectful, constructive dialogue in our communities,” he added. “We appreciate FCC Chairman Carr’s remarks today and this incident highlights the critical need for the FCC to take immediate regulatory action to address control held over local broadcasters by the big national networks.”
Sinclair will replace Kimmel’s ABC time slot with a special honoring Kirk on Friday, Sept. 19.
Sinclair has made it clear it wants the FCC to deregulate, saying on Thursday that action needed to be taken to “address control held over local broadcasters by the big national networks”.
In August, the company said it was launching “a strategic review” of its broadcasting business that could result in a merger.
“The company and its advisors have already held deep discussions with potential merger partners, according to people close to the matter who could not speak publicly due to the sensitive nature of the talks,” CNBC reported.
One Georgia-based broadcasting insider told the Washington Examiner that “both companies need to stay in the good graces of the FCC” and that “Kimmel is the fall guy.”
Jim Speta, a law professor at Northwestern University, told Business Insider that “Nexstar and Tegna have a very recent precedent, the Paramount merger, in which the lesson they may well have learned is that they have to make the Trump administration or the FCC happy enough with them in order to get an approval of the merger.”
“Don’t forget that Kimmel is not the first late-night host that has been taken off the air or told they’re going off the air in the past few months,” he added, referring to CBS’s cancellation of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
CBS said the Colbert decision was “purely a financial decision” and was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.” One week after the network announced it was ending the show, the FCC announced it had approved Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount CBS.
Maryland-based Sinclair owns 178 television stations, which are affiliated with major broadcasters such as ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, across 81 markets in the United States. It is the second-largest operator of affiliate television stations behind Nexstar. In addition to its television stations, Sinclair owns the Tennis Channel and multicast networks CHARGE, Comet, ROAR, and The Nest. It also produces digital content and podcasts.
Julian Smith began the company in 1958 when he received a license to operate an FM radio station in Maryland. From there, the company expanded into television and, in the 1960s, bought numerous local television stations and inked deals to broadcast programming from major networks on them.
The company took off in the mid-1980s, buying up television stations. In the 1990s, Smith’s son, David Smith, started taking a more active role in the company. He and his three brothers bought their parents’ remaining stock and went on a buying spree that eventually made it one of the largest station owners in the country.
The company has been accused of promoting conservative viewpoints under the guise of news programming.
In 2016, David Smith, executive chairman of Sinclair, purportedly told Trump, “We are here to deliver your message.”
Between 2016 and 2017, Sinclair’s profits more than doubled, according to the Associated Press, and in June 2021, Sinclair became a Fortune 500 company.
Sinclair’s biggest competitor is Nexstar, which was founded in 1996 and has grown substantially with acquisitions over the last two decades. It has over 200 owned or partner stations in 116 U.S. markets and reaches 220 million people.
Nexstar became the country’s largest operator of local TV stations after it purchased Tribune Media in 2019.
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The company has a market value of $6.3 billion.
Nexstar runs the CW Network, NewsNation, and in 2021 bought The Hill for $130 million.