Law·Jimmy KimmelNexstar and Sinclair are bringing back Kimmel, but many viewers may have found alternatives while he was blacked outBy Nino PaoliBy Nino PaoliNews FellowNino PaoliNews FellowNino Paoli is a Dow Jones News Fund fellow at Fortune on the News desk.SEE FULL BIO Jimmy Kimmel.Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty ImagesNexstar joined Sinclair on Friday in calling off its Jimmy Kimmel boycott just days after ABC returned the comedian to late-night television.
Beginning Friday night, Jimmy Kimmel ! will return to air on the ABC affiliates, which had preempted the show last week over remarks he made Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
“As a local broadcaster, Nexstar remains committed to tecting the First Amendment while ducing and airing local and national news that is fact-based and unbiased and, above all, broadcasting content that is in the best interest of the communities we serve,” a Nexstar statement said.
“We stand apart from cable television, monolithic ing services, and national networks in our commitment–and obligation–to be stewards of the public airwaves.” Similarly, Sinclair issued a statement earlier on Friday reversing its decision to keep the comedian off its airwaves.
It cited “back from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives.” Sinclair had previously vowed not to put Kimmel back on air unless meetings were held with ABC to discuss the network’s “commitmentment to fessionalism and accountability.” Those discussions are still , though ABC and Disney have not yet accepted any measures posed by Sinclair, which included a network-wide independent ombudsman, per the company’s Friday release.
The stand-down comes days after Kimmel’s first episode back on air had the highest ratings for a regularly scheduled episode in over a decade.
His monologue at the top of the show ranged from the First Amendment and the Trump administration to Erica Kirk’s speech at her late husband’s memorial, garnering over 21 million views on YouTube in just a couple days—the most for a monologue in his show’s history.
Kimmel’s comeback on Tuesday drew 6.3 million TV viewers, four times the show’s average, despite nearly a quarter of ABC’s national reach blacking out his return episode.
Sixty-six local stations owned by the ABC affiliates did not broadcast Jimmy Kimmel !, but this cost them a natural influx of viewership, and possibly some of their market, according to media experts.
“Blackouts this often highlight the strength of digital platforms,” Natalie Andreas, a communications fessor at the University of Texas, told Fortune.
Instead of limiting reach, blackouts push viewers toward spaces YouTube where content spreads faster, lingers longer, and attracts new audiences who may not have tuned in , she said.
Susan Keith, a fessor in the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, told Fortune the blackouts can push viewers to seek—and easily find—Kimmel on their digital cable packages or YouTube if local stations didn’t air the show.
“There’s this idea of public interest, necessity and convenience that over-the-air broadcast media were supposed to fulfill,” she said.
“So if we all move to ing services for content because (of) incidents this one,” it trains viewers to seek media this way.
Earlier this year, ing overtook cable and broadcast as America’s most-watched form of TV, according to Nielsen data.
The FCC does not license TV or radio networks such as CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox, but rather individual stations that may air gramming from these networks.
But the shift to ing has raised questions what its continued role might be as viewers lean away from individual broadcast stations. “I think this is an open question,” Keith said.
“I think we don’t really know what to think the ultimate usefulness of the FCC.” Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh.
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