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Watching the monologue on his first show back, and I have to say Nexstar and Sinclair look real dumb right now.

Kimmel handled this extremely well. ABC somehow comes out of this looking better for ultimately standing by their late night guy even if it took some time. A very strong statement he’s making on freedom of speech and freedom of the press that we have to fight for under this administration.

at one point, Simpsons reruns were the highest rated syndicated product on that station

Again, I usually skip Kimmel's monologue, but this time I had to watch, and he handled it well. Exactly what do Nexstar and Sinclair want? Jimmy (sort of) apologized about any misinterpretations of his comment. He even praised Charlie Kirk's wife for her forgiveness of the shooter. Do the affiliate owners actually want him to donate to Turning Point USA? Jimmy was actually gracious to ABC. That's a lot more than many hard-core comedians in his position would have done. So now does that MSpinlessNBC commentator Matthew Dowd get his job back?

Even without Nexstar and Sinclair airing it, last night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live was watched by over 6 million viewers

Nexstar and Sinclair may force all network streamers to reconsider. One way the networks can fight back is to have a live feed and available to cable customers to show both that there are alternative distribution channels that make them irrelevant. Time for Disney, Paramount and Comcast to take the aggressive approach with these broadcasters.

Affiliates are in the weakest position they've ever been in to make demands. Disney should put all the pressure on now and not let them get away with this behaviour.

Keep in mind that CBS Mornings is going to be using this set soon. It's fine for the morning news but the flagship morning show?

I don't see anything wrong with it. This is for the 7am streaming show, not the TV broadcast that airs in many markets at 4am. I think it looks nice and bright.

Still better than the 2000s when they were still rocking the 1991 vintage graphics and the dark corner of the newsroom for them and Up to the Minute. For a morning newscast that had been stuck with 'last man up' at CBS O&Os during the pandemic, it's actually fine.

My God I hope it happens.... Too bad ABC doesn't have the Big Ten anymore, or they could pull the same stunt in Columbus with WSYX. There's going to be some pissed viewers in Mobile, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Macon, Tulsa, Nashville, Charleston, New Orleans and any other Sinclair or Nexstar ABC market with a strong SEC fan base....

Full monologue.

Very well deserved. A fantastic anchor. He's been working weekends at WKMG for what feels like forever.

Although Nexstar has not been overtly far right in coverage, commentary and speaking points like Sinclair is, they have decided that they are the censors for all of America, and it's a biased censor. That is wrong. The choice should be up to the viewer. The viewer is the ultimate censor. If they don't like a show, or a commentator, or a news product, they watch something else. Most of us have made those choices before. Sadly I am traveling to a market where all commercial TV is now controlled by either of these companies. If I watch the news, it will be streamed from my home market where Sinclair does not exist and Nexstar has a distant 5th place station.

And do the viewers who pay for cable or Disney+/Hulu have the ability to stream the show in pattern? If that's not the case then it becomes a consumer issue, Nexstar and Sinclair are taking away access to something consumers are paying for. If they are not getting what they're paying for, they deserve to be compensated. It may be a fractional amount, but it's based on principle because they are being willfully denied programming that they are obligated to receive from their local affiliate. In this day and age, only a breaking news or weather emergency should deny local viewers access to a network show. And even then, the show should be made cleanly available to paying customers to watch alternatively.

Well, that adds another 29(ish) stations that won't be clearing the show...for now. And Nexstar's ABC affiliations are all up next December as well. Including Tegna, that's another 13 stations that could be affected in the future if the merger with Nexstar is ever greenlit. This could come back to bite Nexstar not only with their status with ABC, but getting Tegna to begin with. ABC could go scorched earth and shack up either on a low powered station or subchannel, or worse, go streaming only if they pull their affiliations from Nexstar and/or Sinclair. Some stations to watch.... WEAR. They were the last to add JKL in pattern in 2022. Last night, they went back to their 1 hour 10pm show and bumped the ABC Family Feud filler to 11pm. Given the market, there may be 4 Sinclair stations, but plenty of other commercial stations outside of Sinclair, Nexstar and Gray. These include WPAN, WMPV, WHBR, and WFBD. All of the former Sinclair stations under Rincon including WICS.WICD, KHQA and KTVO. They're "not" Sinclair stations anymore...we'll see if Rincon picks up the show like the others or if Sinclair is still pulling the strings.... WYTV (and any other shells under Nexstar like Vaughan or Mission). Either they're particpating in the boycott or Nexstar is illegally controlling their programming. And now that Nexstar is particpating in the boycott, WLOX also comes in handy for New Orleans, and viewers in the western half of the market can watch on WBRZ in Baton Rouge.

At the very least, the local stations are going to make sure that corporate starts standing down and letting them make their own programming decisions, both them and Nexstar, and the networks are going to begin to put in a nuclear option clause that they can pull if there's no critical local/national need to pre-empt a show. At least with NYPD Blue in the 90s you had the station GMs (except for the stubborn one at WLOX) humbled once they realized the alternate station airing it was killing whatever 60s sitcom replaced it in the ratings, and the blowback was locally limited. Personally I don't think they cared if Sinclair pre-empted a Friday rerun for something else, but having it revealed as a literal National News Desk infomercial disguised as a tribute was the last straw. The other thing is I don't think an apology is needed from the network since Bob, Dana and Jimmy worked it out like adults. We'll probably get some jibes tomorrow night about the C-suite, but it'll be harmless and most of the venom will be reserved for Nexstar and Sinclair for trying to police the rest of the network (WISN was already in promotional mode about tomorrow night's return today and ready to move on).

Seeing as the Kirk memorial wasn't shown on the Sinclair affiates after all, I assume Disney gave them a behind-the-scenes talking to and reminder of their affiliate obligations.

Personally, I hope ABC read them the riot act and made it perfectly clear that not airing JKL would be a violation of their affiliation agreement...but that's just me. I'd have preferred a full-throated public apology from Disney/ABC executives (including Iger) to Kimmel, his staff, and viewers, but this is good.

Kimmel is back.

Aziza returned to Philadelphia

Definitely the latter for Nexstar, Sinclair, and probably Gray. Another reason for networks to rethink the affiliate model, I guess.

lets face it. He’ll try to interfere even if Disney fires Kimmel. Trump is a bully who likes to bully just because he can. You can be his biggest ass kisser and he’ll still treat you like shit

There was another report issued last night that dealt with the censorship issue and in light of some more recent supreme court rulings. The fact Carr was openly advocating for the action - on several interviews, resulting in soft coercion either direct/indirect pressuring Nexstar and perhaps Sinclair to take their action, or for ABC to self censor beyond normal standards and practices, would still be considered a violation of first amendment rights. What has been overlooked when Kimmel realized that what he said (which seems more about not fitting a particular desired narrative) did issue an apology on X. What adds insult to this is Sinclair's demand Kimmel donate to TPUSA, an organization that based on public records had $85M in revenue. Carr's statement "there is an easy way or a hard way to do this" can be interpreted as a direct threat to ABC. In the meantime you have the regime leader continuing to threaten any critical coverage with censorship and license revocation (not withstanding that he does not understand what elements of broadcasting are actually licensed, the process needed and history of how rare license revocation is). A sound bite on the news this morning is his complaining that news media (except Fox propaganda) turn even good news about him into bad. His very fragile ego is not of anyone's concern. If that was the case he should never be in public office. Every president has been criticized and mocked for many decades. The press must look at all aspects and short term and long term impacts in reporting the news. The issue however, is no longer just Kimmel. It is direct and implied threats to censorship and losing first amendment protections for news organizations, media, and even individuals for something the regime leader does not like. That is scary and why you find MAGA republican like Ted Cruz even concerned, not to say others in the MAGA media universe. An interesting tidbit on the news this morning, which again does not fit in the desired narrative and will cause anger. So far, all the forensic analysis of the alleged shooter's computers, other electronic devices, papers etc find no link to far left groups.

Or from monopolistic station groups run by Conservative CEOs.

And neither of those cancellations came from pressure from the government.

I agree that late night has become too much politics, and all the hosts have the same opinions. I agree the best part of Kimmel's show is his non-political stuff. Jimmy Fallon is my favorite because he has the best politics vs fun balance, but apparently audiences want more politics because he's third in the ratings. I always skip Kimmel's monologue because he's a one topic act, Donald Trump every night for the last 10 years. BUT Kimmel was correct here. The right was desperate to not have Kirk's killer be one of them (a white American gun owner--per Utah's governor) and Trump seemed to mourn Kirk's death quickly as he hastily switched an interview topic to construction. This is different from Roseanne and Tucker Carlson's cancellations. Roseanne made a racist/islamophobic comment and Tucker Carlson spewed false election conspiracy theories. As much as both sides have practiced cancel culture and steered into extremism, one side has been more governmentally aggressive. This particular situation is not both sided. A president and his one specific political party are utilizing the government to silence specific opposing media viewpoints.

You are wrong about most stations still able to pre-empt programming whenever they want in their contracts. Network affiliate agreements have changed. There may be a few exceptions, but it's not the norm anymore, especially for a large group of weak underperforming stations like Sinclair. Most Sinclair stations are last place, with horrible quality newscasts. They are not a desirable station group to affiliate with. Even stations way more important than the ones owned by Sinclair and Nexstar who used to get away with airing programming at different times are now forced to air network programming at the correct time when their affiliate agreement is renewed. You are also making a ridiculous comparison. First, the examples you provided are not even true, WSVN rarely pre-empts FOX programming anymore, but pre-empting a rare sporting event once in awhile is not the same as pre-empting 5 hours of programming per week, and you are wrong about WHDH, WHDH never actually pre-empted The Jay Leno Show, they wanted to, but NBC wouldn't let them, so no NBC does not blame WHDH for Jay Leno failing, WHDH aired Jay Leno just like NBC wanted. Then there is the fact that "Local" affiliates didn't object to carrying Jimmy Kimmel Live. The "local" affiliates had nothing to do with the decision. Right wing conglomerates who own the stations made the decision. It was not made at the station level at all. There is nothing normal or justifiable about what Nexstar and Sinclair did. If Disney had a backbone they would pull their affiliations from both groups, but Disney is terrified of upsetting the far right authoritarian government and evil dictator in the white house.

Aside from a civil war, the best thing Americans can do right now is cancel their subscriptions en masse to these companies that are bowing down. Make it hurt to the point that the oppressors are the ones begging for mercy.

With the demands that Sinclair is levying on Jimmy Kimmel to return to their stations, ABC needs to grow a backbone and pull ALL of their affiliations from Sinclair. They expire in 2026, but technically what they're doing is very likely a breach of contract that should give them the right to act immediately. They should have done it 20 years ago before Sinclair quadrupled in size and acquired leading stations they've driven into the ground. If things continue how they are, the network/affiliation model is on a fast track to extinction. Really the only premiere programming left is live sports and news, everything else worthwhile has migrated to streaming.

Another example of why media consolidation is not always a good thing. Considering in some markets, every commercial anglo TV station is owned by Nexstar and Sinclair, the danger is even worse. There are no independent voices other than Sinclair's unabashed far right slant or Nestar's corporate direction. Not sure how that's in the public interest.

We're taking about 65+ stations, not one, two or a dozen. This is an unprecedented (and very troubling) move by Nexstar and Sinclair. They can take this newfound leverage and wield it however they like without consequence.

This is never going to happen. The only ones who should be giving an apology is Disney, ABC, Nexstar, and Sinclair. Jimmy Kimmel Live's ratings surpassed NBC's The Tonight Show because he focused on politics. It might be annoying to MAGA, but MAGA has lots of other things to watch. The country is never going to unify, the right has gone way too extreme for that to ever happen.

He is not a journalist. He stated an opinion as is his prerogative. And there is a great deal we do not know about this highly suspect case. But that is neither here nor there. The FCC making threats over content is the issue.

Exactly. He said he grew up up in a MAGA household which is a fact. Snowflakes don't like the facts. In the end this is censorship with more threatened by Carr and trump. We still have a Constitution and First Amendment. Those are at odds with each other. We have the right to praise, criticize, mock or whatever else as long as we don't make threats. That is illegal and crosses a line. It is time broadcasters fight back and protect our freedoms. The capitulation to trump only emboldens him to do mare, with ABC and CBS paving that way.

Minor update -- the weather graphics got refreshed.. I'd call this a refresh of the WSB graphics, as they've added more angular/diagrid looks and the 7-days are definitely a refresh of WSB's...

For anyone who remembers or is still interested in the work of TVbD (Television by Design), I can probably answer most questions. I was one of the original members that started the company after leaving WTBS. I've only just noticed your incoming links to the TVbD Vimeo page, so apologies for the late response. I'm recently retired and have been exploring the idea of producing a feature length documentary about the work of TVbD in particular, and/or the history of motion graphic design in general. I'd be curious to know what this community thinks of the idea, and if there might be potential collaborators here. Thanks for the mentions and the memories.

That reminds me, I'm wondering now how long New Jersey Public Radio has. When NJN radio shut down the North/Central Jersey stations were acquired by WNYC to create that network while the South Jersey stations became straight simulcasts of WHYY radio.