Wyden, Colleagues Demand Answers From TV Broadcasters After Pulling of Kimmel’s Show

Wyden, Colleagues Demand Answers From TV Broadcasters After Pulling of Kimmel's Show

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden today joined his colleagues in pressing broadcasters Nexstar and Sinclair for answers on their decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air in markets across the country.

The decision by Nexstar and Sinclair to stop broadcasting Kimmel's show comes as both companies are pursuing business opportunities that require approval from the Trump administration. Nexstar, the nation's largest owner of local television stations and owner of dozens of ABC affiliates, is awaiting approval from the Federal Communications Commission on a pending mega-merger with Tenga. This merger would expand its reach to U.S. households from 39% to an unprecedented 80% nationally. Sinclair, the nation's second-largest broadcaster and largest owner of ABC affiliates, is also awaiting FCC approval for a broadcast deal.

"If Nexstar or Sinclair traded the censorship of a critic of the administration for official acts by the Trump administration, your companies are not only complicit in an alarming trampling of free speech rights but also risk running afoul of anticorruption law," Wyden and three other senators wrote in their letters to Perry A. Sook, chairman of Nexstar Media Group, and Christopher S. Ripley, president and chief executive officer of Sinclair Broadcast Group.

On September 15, 2025, Jimmy Kimmel made several comments in response to Charlie Kirk's assassination that led to a strong reaction from Trump allies. Two days later, FCC Chair Brendan Carr suggested on a podcast that he would consider regulatory consequences for broadcasters who did not take action against Kimmel's show.

Hours after his comments, ABC, Nexstar, and Sinclair suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live!. ABC later announced that it would return Kimmel's show to the network, but Nexstar and Sinclair refused to air the show on local ABC stations they own. Sinclair and Nexstar have since resumed broadcast of the show.

Specifically, the senators requested information on potential coordination between the broadcasters and FCC in the decision to pull Kimmel's show, and any impact of that decision on their pending business deals by October 7, 2025.

In addition to Wyden, the letter was led by Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

In July 2025, Wyden, Warren, and Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., investigated Skydance CEO David Ellison's role in a possible secret deal between Trump and Skydance in relation to Paramount's recent multi-million-dollar settlement. In December 2024, Wyden spoke on the Senate floor calling for the passage of his PRESS Act, which would protect journalists from government interference.

The text of the letter is here.

###