broadcasters

Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to the airwaves after Disney lifted its indefinite suspension of the US late-night show, but two of the largest affiliate owners – Sinclair Broadcasting Group and Nexstar Media Group – will not air the long-running programme.

Disney owns the broadcaster ABC, home of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. On Monday evening, Disney announced that the show would return following discussions with Kimmel’s team and network representatives. However, two of the major affiliate operators have not reversed course.

Keeping the show off those affiliate TV stations significantly cuts into Kimmel’s reach. Nexstar and Sinclair together own and operate 70 of the 250 ABC stations across the United States, putting them at odds with the network.

Nexstar’s vested interest

ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s show after the comedian made remarks about the killing of conservative figure Charlie Kirk. The suspension came just hours after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr warned that stations carrying the show could face fines, or even lose their broadcast licences, urging them to “step up”.

Carr’s comments drew pushback across the political spectrum, including from US President Donald Trump’s allies. Texas Senator Ted Cruz called Carr’s remarks “dangerous as hell”, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Cruz “got it right”.

Nexstar owns 23 ABC affiliates and is currently pursuing a $6.2bn merger with competitor Tegna, a deal requiring FCC approval. If completed, the combined company would reach 80 percent of US households, far above the current 39 percent cap, and would require a policy change. Carr has long supported removing that cap.

“Nexstar’s capitulation in hopes of gaining approval for its merger with Tegna is actually Exhibit A in why it should not be allowed to merge with Tegna. Large conglomerates have enormous leverage to facilitate the Trump administration’s crackdown on free speech, both by censoring themselves and by bullying the networks,” Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told Al Jazeera.

Carr praised Nexstar last week for dropping Kimmel from its affiliates in markets such as Salt Lake City, Nashville and New Orleans.

Margot Susca, professor of journalism, accountability,and democracy at the American University in Washington, DC, said the FCC’s pressure on Kimmel sets a troubling precedent.

“I think what is concerning is that it’s Jimmy Kimmel now, but it could be Meet The Press [which airs on NBC] next year if another corporate media owner needs to make a deal and the Trump administration or Brendan Carr… say they don’t like a segment that comes on a news programme. These are dark days for the content that appears on broadcast television,” Susca said.

Other media experts argue the issue is rooted in the leverage affiliate owners hold.

In the US, affiliate operators license programming from networks and pay carriage fees to do so. Affiliation typically brings more viewers, and thus, more advertising revenue, which is shared between networks and affiliates. Affiliates can preempt network programming, often for local news during severe weather events or political debates, for instance.

“They [TV station operators] can simply not run those programmes because they don’t really need the networks as much as they did at one time,” Tom Letizia, media consultant and head of political communications firm the Letizia Agency, told Al Jazeera, referring to the global trend of viewers finding their content on social media or streaming platforms.

“This is more about making a profit, and that’s really what this business is about. Let’s not forget that. I mean, ratings are the lifeblood of a TV station. If you don’t have ratings, you can’t charge your advertisers a premium cost for that spot.”

A lot of the advertising spend in smaller markets comes from local political parties, and if the politics do not align, those advertising dollars could be cut.

Nexstar said it stands by its decision to preempt Kimmel indefinitely and will “monitor the show as it returns to ABC”. The company denied political involvement or pressure from the Trump administration.

“The decision to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! was made unilaterally by the senior executive team at Nexstar, and they had no communication with the FCC or any government agency prior to making that decision,” a Nexstar spokesman told Al Jazeera.

Sinclair’s stance

Sinclair Broadcasting said on Monday that it does not plan to resume airing Kimmel’s show on its 38 ABC affiliates, opting instead for news programming.

The company, the second-largest US station operator after Nexstar, pushed Kimmel to apologise and “make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA”, Kirk’s conservative activist organisation.

Sinclair has long faced criticism for its conservative leanings. David Smith, the company’s executive chairman, donated $250,000 in 2024 to Kirk’s Turning Point USA through the David D Smith Family Foundation, whose listed address matches Sinclair’s headquarters.

In 2018, Sinclair required local anchors to read a script criticising “one-sided media coverage”, which Trump, then in his first term in office, praised. This came as the company pursued a $3.9bn merger with Tribune Media at the time, a deal that ultimately collapsed after Tribune pulled out.

“As the owners of the stations, they can make the choices over what their content is. Sinclair is a pretty right-wing organisation,” Susca said.

“When they buy a station in a local market, it tacks coverage to the right. They focus more on national politics.”

A 2019 study in the American Political Science Review found that Sinclair stations leaned more conservative than their competitors in the same markets.

“Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return,” Sinclair said in a statement. The company did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for further comment.

Disney’s decision

Disney’s move to reinstate Kimmel comes amid widespread public pressure. Celebrities and elected officials called for boycotts of Disney-owned platforms, including Disney+, ESPN and Hulu, in the wake of his suspension.

Google Trends data showed that searches to cancel those platforms spiked to their highest-ever levels following the suspension.

ABC directly owns only eight stations, including in New York and Houston. WABC in New York faced political backlash when leading mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani pulled out of a debate it was set to host, citing ABC’s suspension of Kimmel.

“Broadcast media is a business. Make no mistake that Kimmel being taken off the air was a business decision. Kimmel being put back on the air is a business decision,” Susca said.

Disney’s stock has fallen 2.78 percent over the past five days.

Laura Crompton, a media analyst and head of global communications agency Hopscotch’s Los Angeles office, said that Tuesday’s show could provide a ratings boost.

“For now, it seems they’ve chosen to put things right and show that they won’t cower to overreach or threats. But something tells me this isn’t over yet. If we want to find a silver lining, I suspect Kimmel’s comeback show tonight will smash audience numbers, even without the 25 percent of audiences disenfranchised by the ongoing standoff regionally. And realistically, I’m sure we’re all relieved we don’t have to take the moral high road and give up our Disney+ favorite shows now,” Crompton told Al Jazeera.

Disney did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

The US senator has labelled Carr’s comments ‘dangerous as hell’ and something ‘right out of Goodfellas’.

A prominent Republican senator has joined the Democrats in criticising threats made by the government of the United States against Disney and local broadcasters for airing Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Ted Cruz, who leads oversight of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said on Friday that FCC chair Brendan Carr’s threat to take regulatory action against networks over the content of their shows sets a dangerous precedent.

Speaking on his podcast, Cruz labelled Carr’s comments “dangerous as hell” and something “right out of Goodfellas”, referring to Martin Scorsese’s iconic gangster movie.

“That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It would be a shame if something happened to it’,” Cruz said.

Carr had threatened to fine broadcasters or pull the licences of those who aired Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday, prompting television network ABC – which is owned by Disney – to suspend the late-night talk show.

The owners of dozens of local TV stations affiliated with ABC also said they would no longer air the show.

Carr’s threat came in response to the host’s opening monologue on Monday discussing the murder of Charlie Kirk – a friend and political ally of the president – which caused uproar among President Donald Trump’s supporters.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said, speaking of 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.

Cruz’s criticism of Carr marks a rare example of a prominent member of Trump’s own party publicly criticising his administration, highlighting deepening bipartisan concerns over attacks on free speech.

“We shouldn’t be threatening government power to force him off air,” Cruz said on his podcast. “It might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel, but when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it,” he added.

Trump, however, said he disagreed with Cruz and called Carr “an incredible American patriot with courage”.

Trump has himself slammed Kimmel’s Kirk monologue, while he also suggested on Thursday that broadcasters critical of his administration should have their FCC-issued licences revoked.

“I’m a very strong person for free speech,” he told reporters at the Oval Office on Friday, when asked to clarify his earlier comments.

But he continued that broadcasters were so critical of him that they represent an extension of the Democratic Party, something he said was “really illegal”.

“That’s no longer free speech … That’s just cheating, and they cheat,” he said.

Prominent Democrats and civil rights groups have condemned the Trump administration’s pressure to punish Kimmel and networks that air his show.

Democrat and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Carr is “one of the single greatest threats to free speech America has ever known”, as he called for him to resign or for Trump to fire him.

Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Friday also asked the FCC’s inspector general to investigate Carr’s actions and comments.

The future of Jimmy Kimmel Live remains unclear and Kimmel is yet to publicly comment on his suspension.

Anyone who is a fan of the Indiana Pacers or just a basketball enthusiast in general (minus those with a rooting interest in the Oklahoma City Thunder) has probably already watched Tyrese Haliburton‘s latest miracle shot from Thursday’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals many, many times.

Get ready to watch it many, many more times.

The NBA has posted video to social media of Haliburton’s game-winning jumper from South Korea’s broadcast of the game on SPOTV, and the announcers’ call of the magical moment is insane.

Simply put, they lose their minds.

Check it out. Don’t worry if you don’t speak the language — the unbridled enthusiasm coming from what sounds like a two-man broadcast booth requires no translation.

Seriously, the only other person who has ever screamed in such a manner was the Who’s Roger Daltry in the epic climax to the 1971 classic “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

The NBA also posted a clip of the clutch shot from ABC/ESPN’s coverage of the game. Play-by-play announcer Mike Breen captured the excitement of the moment as well, although with a slightly less epic delivery than his South Korean counterparts.

The Pacers hadn’t led the entire game and trailed the heavily favored Thunder by nine points after Oklahoma City star and league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hit a pair of free throws with 2:52 remaining in the fourth quarter. But Indiana clawed back behind five points by Andrew Nembhard down the stretch to set up Haliburton’s shot that lifted his team to a 111-110 win.

It was the fourth time during these playoffs that Haliburton hit a shot in the final two seconds of regulation to either win the game or send it into overtime.

“This group never gives up,” Haliburton said after Game 1. “We never believe that the game is over until it hits zero, and that’s just the God’s honest truth. That’s just the confidence that we have as a group, and I think that’s a big reason why this is going on.”

White House accuses outlets of using public money to spread ‘woke propaganda’ as alarm raised on media freedom.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order slashing subsidies to two United States public broadcasters.

Trump issued the order to halt federal funding to PBS and NPR late on Thursday, accusing them of biased reporting and spreading “left-wing” propaganda.

The order is the US president’s latest bid to halt government funding of media he considers unfriendly to his administration. It comes as Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned of an “alarming deterioration in press freedom”.

In a social media post, the White House accused the outlets of receiving millions from taxpayers “to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news’”.

Trump directed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which distributes government funding to media, to “cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and … decline … future funding”.

He also demanded that it root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organisations, endangering their future existence.

According to reports, CPB provide PBS and NPR with roughly half a billion dollars in financing annually, but they also rely heavily on private donations.

It is not clear how much of an immediate effect the order will have on the outlets, which are typically funded two years in advance by Congress in order to protect them from political influence.

Last Month, Paula Kerger, PBS’s CEO and president, warned that cuts in funding would “disrupt the essential service” of the outlet.

It has also been reported that the White House has asked Congress to rescind funding for the CPB, a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967 that is responsible for administering the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting.

‘Alarming deterioration in press freedom’

As part of a broad campaign to cut federal spending, Trump has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to artists, libraries, museums and theatres since taking office in January. He has also threatened to withhold federal research and education funds from universities.

Media has been a significant target. In March, Trump sought to dismantle the US Agency for Global Media, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

However, federal courts called out the administration, saying that in it was overstepping its authority in seeking to hold back funds appropriated by Congress.

Critics slammed the bid to shutter the outlets, which broadcast in many foreign states with authoritarian regimes that suppress media freedom, as a gift to US enemies.

However, concerns over media independence in the US are rising since Trump returned to the White House.

Media rights watchdog RSF warned in its annual report published on Friday of “an alarming deterioration in press freedom” in the US under Trump and “unprecedented” difficulties for independent journalists around the world.

Aside from physical attacks, the media rights watchdog noted that “economic pressure” has become a major and “insidious problem” threatening journalism.