DENVER — Since Wednesday, Denver7 has heard from countless viewers about same topic: ABC's decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely following comments related to the death of Charlie Kirk.
We want to break down what we know about this decision — made at the national, not local level — and explain how our station, which is not owned by ABC, operates.
Denver7 is owned by the the E.W. Scripps Company, while ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Company.
How exactly did Kimmel's show get pulled?
During Monday's monologue, Jimmy Kimmel said that "the MAGA gang" tried to characterize the suspected shooter in Charlie Kirk's case as "anything other than one of them" while "doing everything they can to score political points from it."
Al Tompkins spent 25 years of his life working in local broadcast newsrooms, and another 25 years teaching professional journalists at Poynter. He called Kimmel's comments unnecessary.
"The Washington Post, the New York Times, ABC, CBS, all of them know that they are walking on some pretty tender territory right now," said Tompkins. "I'm concerned that there may be coming a time when news organizations will self-regulate so that they don't call down the thunder — when exactly that is the time they should."
"The way to avoid that is not to do it unnecessarily. To be strong, to be outspoken, to take a strong stand when it's actually necessary, but don't just make fun and be mean-spirited when it's not necessary."
The Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr, suggested the agency may take action against ABC as a result of Kimmel's comments about Kirk.
So, what could that action look like? Tompkins explained:
"The FCC doesn't actually control content. What the FCC controls is licenses. And so, over-the-air broadcast stations are licensed to serve the public, and the FCC can control those licenses, who gets them, and whether they get renewed, and so on," he said. "It's almost unheard of for a television station to lose their license. I mean, not since Nixon has such a thing been seriously threatened, and so until now, that's really just not been a consideration. Which was why, when Chairman Carr mentioned earlier this week that maybe the FCC would be interested in taking action against ABC, that people really sat up and said, 'this could really get serious here.'"
ABC's suspension of Kimmel's show followed announcements by Sinclair and Nexstar — large media companies that own local stations – that they'd be pulling it from their local affiliates.
The media landscape is changing
On Wednesday, Nexstar announced their ABC affiliate stations will preempt "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" for the foreseeable future — starting that evening. Nexstar is one of the largest owners of ABC affiliates in the nation and is in the midst of an unprecedented media acquisition. The company would like to acquire another media giant called TEGNA, but the deal still needs approval from the FCC.
The merger would require the FCC to approve a change regarding how many stations a company can own, which is currently capped at reaching 39% of households in the country.
"Nexstar has very important business in front of the FCC, and truly does not want to irritate Chairman Carr, because their deal depends on that change happening," said Tompkins.
If that merger were to become reality, then Denver is one city that would see two local stations merge.
Nexstar claims the merger would preserve "high-quality journalism and diversity of opinion," while improving their ability to compete with online news consumption and social media. The transaction has been unanimously approved by TEGNA's Board of Directors, with the purchase price "valued at $6.2 billion."
Attorney Steve Zansberg, who serves as the president of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, believes the merger could hurt local journalism.
"I've been practicing media law for 30 years. I've been alive for 65. And in that period of time, I have never witnessed anything that approached the current level of government efforts to influence the content of what is being disseminated to the public through FCC, licensed airwaves, and other forms of media," Zansberg said. "If duopolies and several stations in the same media markets are owned by the same corporate owners, there will be a decrease in the diversity of viewpoints available to viewers, and there will likely be a downsizing in the newsrooms and other local stations as a result of consolidation."
If the merger were approved, Nexstar reported it would cover 80% of U.S. television households. The transaction is expected to close during the second half of 2026, according to Nexstar.
Denver7 reached out to a spokesperson of the FCC for comment, but did not receive a response as of Thursday evening.
Editor's Note: Denver7 is an ABC affiliate station owned and operated by The E.W. Scripps Company. The decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live! was made at the national level and independent of local ABC affiliates. You can contact ABC by calling 818-460-7477 or using this contact form.
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