Sinclair to continue preemption of Kimmel program

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• Told ya! Jimmy Kimmel's ratings have plummeted 70 percent since his return to late night.

• The Kimmel boycott is over on Sinclair.

  • The Kimmel boycott is over on Nexstar.

  • I think you will see more of this division. There will be no "coming together to find common ground." Television has become an arena of politically motivated street fighting.

• It was a local newscast--not a SINCLAIR newscast.

• https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/jimmy-kimmel-remembers-seattle-radio-station-in-return-monologue/

  Jimmy Kimmel took a playful shot at a Seattle radio station at the top of his monologue on Tuesday night, as he returned to late-night television after a nearly weeklong suspension.

  Kimmel was a sidekick on 102.5 KZOK FM's morning show when he was 22 years old, the late-night host said in a 2015 interview with Entertainment Weekly. He was making $384 a week, but was given the ax after he secretly taped meetings with the program director and played them back on air.

  The comedian said the man, "Larry," tried to force him to do a bit called "Jobs for Donuts," where "people would call in with a joke and I would give them donuts." The idea did not go over well with Kimmel, who said he made fun of his boss for suggesting the idea.

• What goes around comes around...
  

  • I threw out my TV about twenty years ago so I missed out.

• His opening monologue is in the following Los Angeles Times article:

  https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2025-09-23/jimmy-kimmel-returns-monologue-abc-suspension

  • The program will not air on KOMO as long as Sinclair keeps to their word. Sinclair has some deals in the works that are more important than the Kimmel show. Besides, they might produce some quality programming in the late night time period, KOMO and the other Sinclair stations.

• Approximately 70 stations between Nexstar and Sinclair will replace the Kimmel show with news programming on an on-going basis.

  • What was on KOMO-TV last night at 11:35? Did anyone watch?

    • Is KOMO management in favor of the Kimmel boycott?

      Was there any announcement, even "Regularly scheduled programming will not be heard"?

      Is Sinclair, which advertised a "network" news program, paying Preston Phillips or is KOMO? Does he get a bonus for anchoring a "network" news program?

      Is the whole crew being paid extra? Is KOMO a union shop?

      Is the program called Sinclair News or KOMO News?

      Are Sinclair and KOMO sharing ad revenue?

      Was there local content?

      Was there a sports reporter? Did the Mariners get any more mention than other teams?

      Did anyone explain to viewers what's going on?

      As part of yesterday's hottest story, did he include Kimmel's monologue in his broadcast?

      Did Preston mention that his assignment might be temporary?

      Was the name Sinclair mentioned anywhere in the newscast?

    • Preston Phillips with a newscast replaced Kimmel.

  • So Sinclair, with its network of forty-nine ABC stations, has begun airing a late night news program, and so has Nexstar, with its couple of dozen ABC outlets.

    I can't find last night's ratings online. Has anybody heard?

    • 13 milion Youtube views. TV ratings likely skyrocketed.
      That is one night and it will be a downhill slide back to his usual less than 130,000 per episode. It is a money loser for ABC and will likely get canceled end of contract.

• Kimmel directly violated an FCC regulation which could have cost the loss of license to individual broadcast stations carrying the program.

  FCC Policy Statement on Comparative Broadcast Hearings, 1 F.C.C.2d 393 (1965)This policy, known as the News Distortion Policy, prohibits broadcasters from intentionally distorting news or presenting hoaxes that mislead the public. It applies to statements like Jimmy Kimmel's September 15, 2025, monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he implied the suspect in Charlie Kirk's killing was part of the "MAGA gang" despite evidence of the suspect's leftist views. FCC Chair Brendan Carr cited this as a violation, warning it could lead to license revocation for ABC affiliates under the public interest standard in 47 U.S.C. § 309(a). Violations can result in fines, license non-renewal, or revocation during periodic reviews every eight years, as seen in past cases like the 1987 RKO General revocation for similar distortions.

  ABC pulled the show, as did Nexstar and Sinclair, because they recognized this violation.
  Kimmel has a line to walk, as his contract is to expire in January.

  • "FCC Chair Brendan Carr cited this as a violation, warning it C-O-U-L-D lead to license revocation for ABC affiliates under the public interest standard in 47 U.S.C. § 309(a). Violations C-A-N result . . ."

    Let me see now, who else do we know who makes empty threats on a regular basis?

    Brendy is to Jimmy as Donny is to Vladdy.

    • Nexstar has a big merger coming up and Sinclair wants a piece of that. They will do as their lawyers tell them.

  • Kimmel certainly tarnished his reputation by spewing hate and misinformation.

    • Everybody saw that coming. I'm guessing Jimmy will survive, but what do I know?

• At this moment someone from Parkland is online. That's the town where I was born, in Grandma's upstairs bedroom. My grandfather was one of Parkland's founding fathers.

• Sinclair bought KOMO-TV in 2013. Some time before 2017, when I moved from Seattle, Sinclair was writing slanted stories and requiring its affiliates to insert them in their newscasts as if they were straight news. The pros in the Channel 4 newsroom, justifiably insulted, didn't cooperate. Local news outlets covered the shenanigans thoroughly. If memory serves, Sinclair backed down. Maybe others on here remember.

  Sinclair says its thirty-nine ABC stations will air news in Kimmel's former time slot. It had announced a Charlie Kirk tribute to fill last Friday night but decided to air Celebrity Family Feud instead.

  • Yes! It would be a shame for a broadcast station to slant the news like CNN and MSNBC do.

    • Viewers expect and deserve local TV news that is impartial and honest. That's why the newsroom at KOMO-TV rebelled against Sinclair.

      MSNBC has never pretended to be a news network. Everything on there is openly pro-left.

      CNN, which began as a news network, and once labeled its opinion programs as such, became pro-left, now mixes news and opinion in the same segment, and fools nobody.

      Fox News is just the opposite, pro-right and proud of it.

      Nobody expects impartial reporting from those three.