No, Needham analysts did not say Disney should shut down its ABC broadcast network — but they did say the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel is proof that ABC should move more shows to streaming service exclusively, in order to escape government scrutiny.

Despite having seven criminal counts dismissed last week, former Deadspin editor Timothy Burke @bubbaprog.xyz still faces serious felony computer hacking charges, and could wind up spending years in prison if convicted.

Fox News Media is trying against to have California Governor Gavin Newsom's $787 million defamation lawsuit thrown out of court, saying the governor may owe the channel attorney's fees if its dismissal is successful on anti-SLAPP grounds.

The chairman of the federal agency that regulates broadcasters sharing a post from Trump that said his pick for chairman is "supported by MAGA like few others." Just in case you're wondering where things are headed.

A federal judge dismissed half the criminal charges against former Deadspin editor Timothy Burke, @bubbaprog.xyz, swayed by First Amendment arguments. Burke still faces numerous felony computer hacking charges, and could be re-charged on dismissed counts in a future indictment.

Sports fans in the Washington, D.C. area are likely to lose access to Monumental Sports Network on YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV early next month.

Sinclair ends blackout of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" after constructive conversations with ABC.

NEW: Sinclair says it will bring back "Jimmy Kimmel Live" to its ABC affiliates across all markets — including D.C. and Seattle — starting Friday evening.

YouTube TV is set to lose both Telemundo and Univision on the same day as contract disputes with Comcast's NBC Universal and Televisa-Univision inch closer to reality.

NEW: The National Religious Broadcasters have sent a letter to the FCC voicing their support for "Jimmy Kimmel Live," saying the agency should treat all programming fairly and equitably.

Amazon likely to announce a new operating system called Vega for its Fire TV devices next week; currently, all Fire TV devices run a variant of Android with Amazon's own user interface. [The Verge/Lowpass]

Televisa-Univision has launched a new national ad campaign urging Google to "do the right thing" as a contract to carry its channels in YouTube TV's base programming package is set to expire next week.

Multiple sources tell me Nexstar-owned ABC affiliates aired commercials promoting Jimmy Kimmel's return on Tuesday, even though the show was replaced with extended news programming on those stations. The ads ran during ABC's prime-time shows, and were inserted by the network for all stations.

The 6.26 million viewers that ABC pulled in with its return episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" is higher than the 5.2 million viewers the Fox News Channel attracted with its coverage of Charlie Kirk's public memorial last week.

#BREAKING: Jimmy Kimmel Live soars to 6.26 million viewers on ABC, network says, citing preliminary data from Nielsen. The actual number of viewers will likely be higher when finalized Nielsen data is released later this week. It was the highest-rated episode of Kimmel's show since 2015.

#BREAKING: The Center for Accountability has filed a bar complaint against FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a licensed lawyer, alleging he violated rules of professional conduct for exerting pressure on ABC over "Jimmy Kimmel Live" It is the second bar complaint filed against Carr in two months.

MSNBC and Sky News have formed a global news partnership that will allow the cable news outlet to tap into the global resources of Sky News from October.

This is an important distinction: If the show was pre-empted, it would broadcast on the same station at a different time (usually, a later hour, very overnight), or on a different station in the same market. Here, the show is not available in areas where Nexstar/Sinclair own the ABC affiliate.

Nexstar and Sinclair are not pre-empting "Jimmy Kimmel Live" — that would involve putting the show on another network, or airing at a later hour. They are blacking out the show, depriving their viewers of Kimmel's program, even though they continue to pay ABC for the rights to air it.

Earlier this month, Kari Lake called our news outlet "fake news." And then admitted our reporting was accurate. So, we wrote a story about it.

Since we're all talking about Nexstar...here's a story we wrote in April: Nexstar ordered its local TV stations to run news stories that promoted the company's federal deregulation efforts. Many directed viewers to a website that included pre-written social media posts advocating the same.

Savage.

"I want to thank the people who don't support my show and what I believe, but believe my right to share those beliefs anyway. People who I never would have imagined — like Ben Shapiro, Clay Travis, Candace Owens, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul — even my own pal, Ted Cruz."

The Kimmel monologue was 18 minutes of extraordinary, raw television that will be hated by the people who wanted him off the air for good. Trump and Brendan Carr lost this one as badly as it's possible to lose.

Jimmy Kimmel's monologue has half a million YouTube views in its first 36 minutes on the platform. It hasn't aired on the West Coast yet.

Earlier this month, Kari Lake called our news outlet "fake news." And then admitted our reporting was accurate. So, we wrote a story about it.

Since we're all talking about Nexstar...here's a story we wrote in April: Nexstar ordered its local TV stations to run news stories that promoted the company's federal deregulation efforts. Many directed viewers to a website that included pre-written social media posts advocating the same.

Sinclair's decision to pre-empt "Jimmy Kimmel Live" means the White House will have no access to the show until it is available on Hulu. WJLA, the ABC affiliate for the Washington, D.C. area, is owned by Sinclair.

Residents in Central California will have fewer sources of local news after CBS affiliate KION-TV shut down its news department on Tuesday. The station is eliminating the Monterey-Salinas market's only Spanish language newscast, and will simulcast English-language news from San Francisco.

If Brendan Carr truly believes that LOCAL TV stations should have LOCAL control of their programming, he must agree that KOMO, the Sinclair-owned ABC affiliate in Seattle, should be able to decide for itself whether to air Jimmy Kimmel’s show — not be ordered around by execs hundreds of miles away.

Except that isn't what happened, and I think FCC Chairman Carr knows this. Local TV stations did not make individual decisions based on the best interest of their local markets. The corporate owners of the local TV outlets made unilateral decisions that affected all their stations.

Nexstar and Sinclair will not air "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on their ABC affiliated stations tonight — even though Nexstar and Sinclair are paying ABC for the right to carry their programming. In affected markets, viewers will have to sign up for Hulu to watch full episodes — which also benefits DIsney.

To paraphrase this exchange... Kari Lake: Matthew Keys is fake news. Attorney: Okay. But did he report the truth here about the layoffs of Voice of America workers? Kari Lake: Well, yes.

YouTube says it will reverse a ban on COVID-19 conspiracy theorists; in a letter sent to a Republican lawmaker this week, YouTube's parent company Alphabet blamed pressure by the Biden administration for its decision to ban certain content creators who spread misinformation.

Less than a day after ABC announced "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" will return to the network and Hulu, Disney has announced a price increase on its Disney Plus and Hulu apps. In some parts of the country, Hulu will be the only way to watch full episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live after Tuesday.

😅

In the Jimmy Kimmel situation, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr keeps trying to make this a case of local stations choosing the best programming for their communities. But they aren’t. Their corporate overlords are making decisions for all local stations, not on a market-by-market basis.

ABC might be ready to bring "Jimmy Kimmel Live" back to the air. Sinclair is not.

NEW: A Sinclair spokesperson tells me they will NOT be airing "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on their ABC affiliates, even though Kimmel is returning to the network tomorrow. "Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return." Local news will air instead.

Jimmy Kimmel is returning to ABC on Tuesday.

Earlier this week, Sinclair said it would replace "Jimmy Kimmel Live" with a documentary about Charlie Kirk during the Friday time slot that Kimmel occupies on its ABC affiliates. Friday evening, Sinclair pulled the documentary and aired "Celebrity Family Feud" instead.

A petition to reinstate Jimmy Kimmel on ABC has received nearly 150,000 signatures as of Saturday afternoon. The website MoveOn has also started driving a truck around Burbank, where ABC is based, promoting their petition. sign.moveon.org/petitions/ki...

Sinclair reversed a decision to air a documentary on the life of Charlie Kirk in a Friday evening time slot normally reserved for repeats of Jimmy Kimmel Live (Matthew Keys/TheDesk.net) Main Link | Mediagazer Permalink

PLAY FREE BIRD.

Earlier this week, Sinclair said it would replace "Jimmy Kimmel Live" with a documentary about Charlie Kirk during the Friday time slot that Kimmel occupies on its ABC affiliates. Friday evening, Sinclair pulled the documentary and aired "Celebrity Family Feud" instead.

#BREAKING: Sinclair walked back its commitment to air a Charlie Kirk special documentary in place of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" Friday evening. Instead, it aired "Celebrity Family Feud," and streamed the Charlie Kirk special on YouTube.

CNN's Van Jones says Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk invited him onto his podcast to have a "respectful conversation about crime and race" hours before Kirk was fatally shot. [CNN] www.cnn.com/2025/09/19/p...

The Office of California Governor Gavin Newsom has condemned a shooting at a local ABC affiliate in Sacramento. "Any act of violence toward journalists is an attack on our democracy itself and must be condemned in the strongest terms," Newsom's office said.

What Jimmy Kimmel controversy? Fox-owned Tubi has episodes of “The Man Show.” link.tubi.tv/3ivxpZ4WNWb

"Jimmy Kimmel Live" was suspended because Kimmel wanted to address the controversy during his monologue Wednesday evening, and Disney executives felt that would make the situation worse, not better. [Wall Street Journal]