The boycott against Jimmy Kimmel seems to arrive, yes, to an end. If Nexstar was the first to suspend the broadcast of the Kimmel program last week, this Friday, nine days later, it has been the last to lift the veto to the ABC chain humor. The audiovisual group, with around 200 stations, has about 28 that every night They hook con Jimmy Kimmel Live! In different cities from all over the United States. They were the first who advocated to suspend their broadcast, dragging ABC with them for a week. But when the Disney chain decided to put the program again, they refused. Until Friday.
In the early afternoon, Nexstar has announced that he will finally broadcast the program, starting on this same night, in that thirty stations. Thus continues the steps of the other group that maintained its veto, Sinclair, who raised it in the morning and that will broadcast it in the 38 affiliated chains. Between the two, with those 66 chains, they added about 25% of the audience to which Kimmel reaches. Now, finally, the space can be seen in cities such as New Orleans, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Portland or Washington, the capital, always aware of the last political chascarrillo of their nightly comedians. That will also mean that these little stations will be made with a juicy piece of the advertising cake: Kimmel is bursting the audiences after its suspension, and in, the triple of the usual and its historical maximum. For Nexstar and Sinclair staying out, it was involved losing a lot of money from advertisers.
The program was suspended on Wednesday, September 17, and on Monday 22 ABC announced that it would return on Tuesday, but they sent two communications claiming similar reasons: that until they had constructive conversations with ABC to ensure an environment of respect, they would not issue it. However, his reasons went much further.
Nexstar, meanwhile, is immersed in a merger process with Tegna, a large competitor, in a purchase that is a movement of 6.2 billion dollars; To achieve this, they need the support of the FCC, the federal telecommunications regulator, that is, of the Trump administration. And the head of the FCC was the first to requested Kimmel’s head after him. For his, Sinclair is owned by David Smith, a republican donor near both to President Donald Trump and Catholic and very conservative judges, little lover of criticism of Trump and liberal speeches such as Kimmel’s.
This Friday, Nexstar has assured that these “discussions” have taken place and have come to fruition. “As a local broadcaster, Nexstar maintains its commitment to protect the first amendment while producing and issues local and national news based on facts and without biases and, above all, disseminates content that results in the best interest of the communities we serve,” they say in a statement. “We differentiate ourselves from cable television, the services of streaming monolithic and national chains in our commitment – and obligation – to be guardians of public broadcasts and to protect and reflect the specific sensibilities of our communities, “they say, value their service characteristics before local communities.
From Nexstar they end up riveting: “To make it clear, our commitment to these principles has guided our decisions throughout this process, regardless of any external influence of government or particular organisms.” Very similar to what Sinclair, who said in his note that his decision to suspend the space was “independent of any government interaction or influence.”
In this couple of days with Kimmel on antenna, both Nexstar and Sinclair have changed the issuance of the program for other informative spaces or repetitions; Sinclair announced that he would do a special program but never happened.
On Thursday, Kimmel referred to the issue of local stations in his opening monologue, explaining that although they were still vetoed in some 60 cities, their audiences were being spectacular. “And I mean we couldn’t have done it without you, Mr. President,” he joked. “Thank you very much. We have achieved the EFFECT TRUMP And we appreciate it. “
