Sinclair have announced that the local TV station boycott of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is coming to an end.
Sinclair said in a statement it will end its preemption of the late night show Friday night after “thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives.”
THR reports that the company was seeking notable concessions from Disney, such as a network-wide independent ombudsman, but no editorial or content concessions have reportedly been made by Disney. Sinclair made other public demands last week.
Pressure from the station owners Nexstar and Sinclair, who collectively control nearly one quarter of all ABC stations, initially forced Disney to take Kimmel’s show off-air by saying they were going to preempt the show in the wake of comments he made on the program.
Disney brought back the show on Tuesday but both Sinclair and Nexstar said that they would not be airing Kimmel’s return Tuesday night.
That tactic didn’t appear to work, Kimmel’s monologue broke his own YouTube viewership record with online or streaming the primary place where people are engaging with the program.
Sinclair insisted today its decision to preempt this program was “independent of any government interaction or influence.”
The backing down of the famously conservative Sinclair company follows four Democratic lawmakers announcing Wednesday they are opening a probe into Nexstar and Sinclair focusing on whether their decisions to pull Kimmel’s show “relate to regulatory issues pending with the Trump administration”.
