Deadline has reported that Sinclair Media has backed off on its plan to air the Charlie Kirk tribute special during Jimmy Kimmel Live!. They instead elected to post the special to YouTube. Sinclair Media, the largest ABC affiliate group, shared its new plans via X on Friday.

“Tonight, Sinclair will continue to air ABC network programming as scheduled in the late-night time period, The Charlie Kirk special will instead be available on The National News Desk’s YouTube channel, ensuring viewers can continue to enjoy ABC programming while also providing full access to the special online.” via Deadline.

Watch now: https://t.co/2OG7KE9S8Z pic.twitter.com/oRNt3vXnhU

— Sinclair, Inc. (@WeAreSinclair) September 20, 2025

According to Deadline, Disney has stated that the suspension is indefinite at this point after warnings from the FCC’s Brendan Carr. Sinclair Media has previously said that the suspension is still pending talks with ABC about “commitment to professionalism and accountability”.

Deadline has reported that in their statement, Sinclair called on Jimmy Kimmel to make certain reparations and apologies. “Sinclair also calls upon Mr. Kimmel to issue a direct apology to the Kirk family. Furthermore, we ask Mr. Kimmel to make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA, Regardless of ABC’s plans for the future of the program, Sinclair intends not to return Jimmy Kimmel Live! to our air until we are confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform.”

According to Deadline, Nexstar, another prominent ABC affiliate, has also elected to halt its broadcast of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. “Nexstar’s owned and partner television stations affiliated with the ABC Television Network will preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show,” Nexstar said in a statement before continuing to voice their objections about Kimmel’s commentary. “Nexstar strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”

Via Deadline, Kirk, a prominent conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed on September 10th at a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University. Shortly afterward, Kimmel offered his thoughts on the reaction of the MAGA movement to the killing.”We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said in his September 15th broadcast.