Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension highlights Nexstar and Sinclair’s vast control over US airwaves
Nexstar and Sinclair control large swaths of US television stations. Nexstar’s planned merger could make their influence even greater.
On Wednesday evening, Disney’s ABC announced its shocking decision to yank Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show off the air.
An ABC spokesperson on Wednesday said that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would be “preempted indefinitely” following comments Kimmel made on his show Monday linking the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk to President Trump’s MAGA movement.
Disney’s decision — which was strongly condemned by several Democratic lawmakers, entertainment unions, and actors — came after a fierce pressure campaign from FCC Chair Brendan Carr as well as two of the country’s largest TV broadcasting groups, Nexstar and Sinclair Inc., which each own several ABC affiliate stations across the US.
The move, which Carr praised as “unprecedented” in an interview on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Wednesday night, highlights the vast market control wielded by Nexstar and Sinclair.
According to media analytics company Nielsen, there are 210 designated television markets in the US. Nexstar, the owner of NewsNation and CW, says it owns or partners with more than 200 television stations in 116 of them. Sinclair’s business reportedly includes 178 stations in 81 markets. In a press release on Wednesday, Sinclair referred to itself as “the nation’s largest ABC affiliate group.”
Both Nexstar and Sinclair significantly expanded their market share in Trump’s first term through multibillion-dollar acquisitions. In 2019, Sinclair acquired 21 regional sports networks from Disney in a $10.6 billion deal. Regulators approved Nexstar’s $4.1 billion takeover of Tribune Media in the same year.
Last month, Nexstar announced a $6.2 billion merger agreement with rival Tegna, which owns 64 US stations. The two companies reportedly overlap in 35 US markets, which could potentially garner regulator scrutiny.
The upcoming merger has many critics noting parallels to the cancellation of CBS’s top-rated “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” in July, which came amid the merger of Paramount Skydance. At the time, Paramount called the move a “financial decision.”
Trump celebrated the cancellation in a post on Truth Social, writing, “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.”
In another post Wednesday night, the president referred to Kimmel’s suspension as “great news for America.”
“That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC,” the president wrote, adding, “Do it NBC!!!”
The Nexstar and Sinclair deals have given both companies a remarkable amount of control over what sorts of messages make it across the air, and, clearly, a strong position to wield influence over even the world’s largest entertainment companies.
