Jimmy Kimmel Live Is Back on Sinclair's ABC Stations — Here's What the Company Said

Well, that escalated quickly. After a messy week of threats, pauses, preemptions, and a lot of finger-pointing, Jimmy Kimmel Live! is heading back onto Sinclair-owned ABC stations tonight. Here is how we got to this very 2025 TV moment.

Quick recap

• Last week, ABC shut down production on Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the FCC publicly threatened action against the network and its license over Kimmel's comments about Charlie Kirk's death. That move sparked a wave of outrage, with a bunch of Hollywood orgs and big names calling it an attack on free speech by the Trump Administration.
• A few days later, Kimmel and ABC worked things out, and the show returned on Tuesday, September 23, 2025.
• Not everyone aired it. Sinclair Broadcast Group, which controls 38 ABC stations, pulled the show and slotted in news instead in markets including New Orleans, Salt Lake City, and Washington, D.C., among others.
• Tonight, Sinclair is reversing that call and ending its preemption of Kimmel.

What Sinclair is saying

Sinclair says it heard a lot from all sides before flipping the switch back on: feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders, and not all of it aligned. The company also floated some industry-nerd fixes to ABC during what it describes as constructive talks. Think more accountability and direct ways for audiences to be heard, including something pretty inside baseball: a network-wide independent ombudsman. ABC and Disney have not agreed to those ideas, and Sinclair notes that is their prerogative under affiliate agreements, but the company argues moves like that would rebuild trust.

'Our decision to preempt this program was independent of any government interaction or influence.'

'It is simply inconsistent to champion free speech while demanding that broadcasters air specific content.'

That last line is the crux of Sinclair's defense: free speech cuts both ways, and in their view, affiliates can make editorial calls for their local stations even if fans hate those calls.

Why this matters

This is one of those TV moments where the behind-the-scenes machinery suddenly becomes the story. Affiliate rights, FCC pressure, corporate politics, and a late-night show caught in the middle. The ombudsman suggestion is a notable tell that Sinclair wants more formal guardrails around content blowups. ABC and Disney passing on it for now also tracks with how networks usually handle affiliate input: politely, but at arm's length.

Bottom line: Kimmel is back on those 38 Sinclair-controlled ABC stations tonight, the FCC drama isn't going away, and the next time a late-night monologue detonates the news cycle, expect this same tug-of-war to fire up again even faster.