Donald Trump may be irate at ABC for reinstating Jimmy Kimmel, but he still won’t find the late-night talk host’s show on the airwaves in Washington, D.C.
That’s because the ABC affiliate, WJLA-TV, is among the Sinclair-owned stations that are still declining to air the late-night talk show.
Instead, what viewers saw on Tuesday was a “special edition” of 7News On Your Side, the station’s nightly newscast. There was no announcement at the outset, although a news ticker featured the headline that Sinclair and Nexstar had decided to preempt Kimmel.
Instead, the newscast, anchored by Scott Thuman, led with a story on a “lost” cemetery in Cheltenham, MD, where the graves of Black children, dating to the 19th century, are being rehabilitated. Those interred came from a nearby reform facility. “In this era of Trump erasing history, Maryland has to take action,” Prince George’s County State Delegate Jeff Long told the station.
At midnight, WJLA aired Sinclair’s national newscast The National Desk, anchored by Dee Dee Gatton, and leading with Trump’s visit on Tuesday to the United Nations General Assembly, followed by a segment on efforts to continue Charlie Kirk‘s legacy. The National Desk website did feature a story on Kimmel’s return, but the broadcast did not. It did feature a story on Disney’s plans to raise prices on Disney+ and Hulu.
The network affiliates in Washington are particularly lucrative for their owners, as they typically draw political and issue ads as sponsors try to reach lawmakers. That was apparent just before the special edition of 7News, with spots form Virginia’s gubernatorial and attorney general candidates starting to flood the airwaves in advance of the November election.
Sinclair, which has more than three dozen ABC stations, said on Monday that discussions with the network are “ongoing.”
The station group last week called on the late-night host to issue a direct apology to the Kirk family and make make “a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA.”
Sinclair has been known for its owners’ political conservative bent, something that has made them a target of Democrats and public interest groups.
Sinclair said last week that it planned to air a Kirk tribute special in Kimmel’s time slot on Friday. But it instead moved that special to its YouTube channel and aired ABC’s programming instead, a rerun of Celebrity Family Feud.
Nexstar said that many of its ABC affiliates would be airing expanded newscasts in place of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
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