Nexstar ABC Stations Dropping Kimmel

[Glimmer 340]

Nexstar will continue to preempt Kimmel as well

[Georgie56 3661]

This is going to get ooglay.

[MidwestTV 1358]

14 minutes ago, Glimmer said:

Nexstar will continue to preempt Kimmel as well

 

Again, WHAT is it exactly that Nexstar wants? What assurances? That Kimmel won't ever make a joke about a conservative ever again? I'm sure the affiliates are pissed too that they're being forced to stick around for an extra half-hour of news. I wouldn't be surprised if Nexstar is trying to see if news rates better in place of Kimmel and wants more time to find out.

[drnilescrane 2]

6 minutes ago, MidwestTV said:

 

Again, WHAT is it exactly that Nexstar wants? What assurances? That Kimmel won't ever make a joke about a conservative ever again? I'm sure the affiliates are pissed too that they're being forced to stick around for an extra half-hour of news. I wouldn't be surprised if Nexstar is trying to see if news rates better in place of Kimmel and wants more time to find out.

 

I'm absolutely convinced that's what's going on with Sinclair. This is a jawboning moment for them - they want the time back. 

[TVHead 21]

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. 

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

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.

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

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.

Edited September 23, 2025 by tyrannical bastard

[MD TV 390]

15 hours ago, MidwestTV said:

 

ABC: Ok ok! We'll bring back Kimmel, just please stop unsubscribing from Disney+. By the way, we're raising our prices on Disney+.

And they announced it:

 

 

[AmericanErrorist 267]

27 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

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.

Neither Disney+ nor Hulu has any live feed of ABC (their sports programs are available on ESPN Unlimited), the only streamers co-owned with a Big 4 network to not have such a feed.

 

No channel packages anywhere in the country are sold under the obligation that any particular programming will actually be provided. Frustrated viewers will have to beg to their cable/OTT providers for said refunds.

 

CityTV in Canada aired Celebrity Family Feud in pattern with ABC Wednesday and then turned to Hudson & Rex, a Canadian-produced original series, through to today when they will air JKL:

 

https://www.richmond-news.com/entertainment-news/citytv-to-replace-jimmy-kimmel-live-with-hudson-rex-11229929

Edited September 23, 2025 by AmericanErrorist

[mre29 1967]

23 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

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.

 

The show will be on Hulu the day after it airs. No idea what time, though, but probably no sooner than 6:37am ET (12:37am Hawaii time).

 

And, of course, segments will be released to the show's YouTube channel. I actually think that tonight's episode should be made available there in its entirety so that as many viewers as possible can see Kimmel's first episode post-suspension.

 

[NowBergen 924]

1 hour ago, drnilescrane said:

 

I'm absolutely convinced that's what's going on with Sinclair. This is a jawboning moment for them - they want the time back. 

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.

[NowBergen 924]

36 minutes ago, AmericanErrorist said:

Neither Disney+ nor Hulu has any live feed of ABC (their sports programs are available on ESPN Unlimited), the only streamers co-owned with a Big 4 network to not have such a feed.

 

No channel packages anywhere in the country are sold under the obligation that any particular programming will actually be provided. Frustrated viewers will have to beg to their cable/OTT providers for said refunds.

 

CityTV in Canada aired Celebrity Family Feud in pattern with ABC Wednesday and then turned to Hudson & Rex, a Canadian-produced original series, through to today when they will air JKL:

 

https://www.richmond-news.com/entertainment-news/citytv-to-replace-jimmy-kimmel-live-with-hudson-rex-11229929

 

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.  

[AmericanErrorist 267]

7 minutes ago, NowBergen said:

 

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.  

At one point Fox had a separate feed filled with other 21CF programming (as this was pre‐Disney) during non-network hours on the vMVPDs but all the network feeds on Paramount+, Peacock, and Fox One and on the vMVPDs are of the affiliates, meaning they're stuck with whatever local pre-emptions have eventuated. If Disney and Nexstar or Sinclair were to ever to court, the station owners would likely claim (or counterclaim if ABC were to claim a contract violation in the initial act of preemption) a contractual right to show whatever they want on those feeds.

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

ABC does offer a live network feed (filled in with ABC News Live programming) on YTTV where no local affiliate exists.  This includes places like Parkersburg, WV; Zanesville, OH; and Glendive, MT.

[AmericanErrorist 267]

Is ABC actively looking for other stations to air the show in the affected markets?

[nathannah 2792]

This is one of the reasons I hate that ABC never put much into subchannel networks outside Live Well and Localish, because that would be an option for other companies easily (NBC with Cozi, CBS with Dabl, Fox with Fox Weather). Maybe they could run it on FX tonight too?

[NowBergen 924]

26 minutes ago, nathannah said:

This is one of the reasons I hate that ABC never put much into subchannel networks outside Live Well and Localish, because that would be an option for other companies easily (NBC with Cozi, CBS with Dabl, Fox with Fox Weather). Maybe they could run it on FX tonight too?

Outside O&O markets, where Sinclair and Nexstar may not be a big factor, wouldn't that depend on the local affiliate's ownership broadcasting those sub channels?  

[nathannah 2792]

1 hour ago, NowBergen said:

Outside O&O markets, where Sinclair and Nexstar may not be a big factor, wouldn't that depend on the local affiliate's ownership broadcasting those sub channels?  

True on that...a temporary night on cable would probably be better than coordinating subchannel networks; I'm just disappointed that unlike the UK, Canada and Australia, the Big Four networks have never really developed secondary broadcast networks (no, MyNet and pre-Nexstar CW do not count).

[AmericanErrorist 267]

You could throw Fox, (non-O&O) CW and MyNet stations into the mix as well.

Edited September 23, 2025 by AmericanErrorist

[mre29 1967]

1 hour ago, nathannah said:

True on that...a temporary night on cable would probably be better than coordinating subchannel networks; I'm just disappointed that unlike the UK, Canada and Australia, the Big Four networks have never really developed secondary broadcast networks (no, MyNet and pre-Nexstar CW do not count).

 

I think the only Disney-owned cable channel that would be available and have widespread coverage is FX. FXX might be a better fit content-wise, but it doesn't as much carriage as its sister station. And Freeform effectively doesn't exist between 11pm and midnight ET. (IYKYK.)

 

 

 

[DJonNews 104]

I just thought I'd drop this nugget into the conversation in the case of Sinclair:

Quote

A network affiliate like Sinclair can pre-empt a network show a limited number of times (depends on the contract), but then is in breach of its affiliate agreement and faces penalties or cancellation. So Sinclair is likely on a short leash here.

This is from Paul Farhi. And yes, "network programming" includes "Jimmy Kimmel Live," the very show they don't intend to show on their ABC stations for the time being.

Edited September 24, 2025 by DJonNews

[nathannah 2792]

As we're almost into the tenth month, there is probably little wiggle room left for pre-emptions at this point, as they're usually used for preseason games and high school sports tournaments rather than how they were in the past (coaches shows in the 90s and 2000s basically made ABC's pre-MNF Monday night schedule after the end of McGyver a joke of pre-empted series and 20/20, and even Tuesdays, when stations like WKRN and WBAY pre-empted shows for hour-long X's and O's shows, and of course, stations that showed TV movies just to throw on gobs of make-goods like WTMJ and WKYC).

 

Nexstar is even worse off because they have their FCC 'back off we serve the public' initiatives like Remarkable Women that they force their stations to run and that took out an hour on their ABC affiliates already. Down the line if a weather disaster happens, they're basically setting up their stations for a pointless annoyance if they want to extend programming for aftermath coverage, but can't because they ran out of make-up hours.

 

I still wonder how Nexstar handled election night coverage on the CW/NewsNation being pre-empted on Sinclair stations by TND coverage too; do they have an unsaid gentleman's agreement not to compete as part of their affiliation agreements?

Edited September 24, 2025 by nathannah

[AmericanErrorist 267]

 

9 minutes ago, nathannah said:

As we're almost into the tenth month, there is probably little wiggle room left for pre-emptions at this point, as they're usually used for preseason games and high school sports tournaments rather than how they were in the past (coaches shows in the 90s and 2000s basically made ABC's pre-MNF Monday night schedule after the end of McGyver a joke of pre-empted series and 20/20, and even Tuesdays, when stations like WKRN and WBAY pre-empted shows for hour-long X's and O's shows).

 

Nexstar is even worse off because they have their FCC 'back off we serve the public' initiatives like Remarkable Women that they force their stations to run and that took out an hour on their ABC affiliates already. Down the line if a weather disaster happens, they're basically setting up their stations for a pointless annoyance if they want to extend programming for aftermath coverage, but can't because they ran out of make-up hours.

Assuming the network wants to fight back over this. They've been silent so far (this is just starting, however).

Edited September 24, 2025 by AmericanErrorist

[MorningNews 1711]

Could this be the way ABC decides to fight back?

[GoldenShine_10 263]

23 minutes ago, MorningNews said:

Could this be the way ABC decides to fight back?

 

Nexstar owns the ABC affiliation in 2 of the SEC markets (and will own two more if the Tegna deal gets through). Sinclair has it in one of the markets. The rest is a hodgepodge of companies.

 

One other thing I'd watch to see if any of the remaining independently-owned ABC affiliates (examples: KTBS, WBRZ, WDAY) try to join Sinclair and Nexstar in boycotting as well. There aren't that many of them, but they would have a bit more leverage.

Edited September 24, 2025 by GoldenShine_10