Broadcasting giant Sinclair, which owns dozens of ABC affiliates across several states, confirmed Wednesday that it will continue to withhold airings of Jimmy Kimmel Live! until the titular host issues a formal apology for his comments about the Charlie Kirk assassination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kimmel was suspended for several days after he falsely claimed that the shooter was a \u201cMAGA\u201d supporter, prompting massive backlash against ABC and the show\u2019s advertisers. After Sinclair and fellow broadcasting juggernaut Nextstar announced that they would be preempting Kimmel\u2019s show in favor of news programming unless a retraction was issued, ABC announced that Kimmel\u2019s show would be suspended \u201cindefinitely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After several days of negotiations between Kimmel and the network, the host returned to the airwaves on Tuesday night. Kimmel did tearfully state that he did not intend to \u201ccelebrate the murder of a young man,\u201d and apologized for anyone who thought his comments might have been taken out of context, though his statement fell short of an apology for the false statement in the eyes of Sinclair, according to a report from Fox News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBeginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming. Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show\u2019s potential return,\u201d the network announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nextstar also affirmed that they will be joining Sinclair in preempting Kimmel\u2019s show until a retraction is issued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe made a decision last week to preempt \u2018Jimmy Kimmel Live!\u2019 following what ABC referred to as Mr. Kimmel\u2019s \u2018ill-timed and insensitive\u2019 comments at a critical time in our national discourse,\u201d a Nexstar spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n