• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Kimmel returns Tuesday

Status
Not open for further replies.
One way to get ownership to listen is advising to suddenly slump. They lost over $3Blillion.

This is why economic boycott is a powerful tool. The trouble has always been that mainstream America tended not to follow through. "I know I should boycott Target, but they're so convenient."

I used to be that way, when I was younger.

But now? The day Jeff Bezos landed on my FTG list was the day I cancelled The Washington Post, Amazon Prime (I have car keys, two legs and local merchants) and made a promise to myself to never shop at Whole Foods again.

I need air, water, electricity, food, my wife, kids, grandkids and the mortgage company to accept the payment every month. Beyond that, it's just stuff I like.

We consumers have enormous power if we're just willing to take a hard look at the difference between "like", "want" and "need".

I mentioned this in the other thread: I love Only Murders in the Building (Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez). It's on Hulu and the new season just started two weeks ago. Probably my favorite current show. Certainly my favorite among the ones in a current fresh season.

I dumped Disney ABC the next day after they announced Kimmel's pre-emption.

And what was great about it (and this is the case with most subscription cancellations), is that if you click "other" for your reason, they ask you to be specific. I was. They know exactly what they did to make me not give them money. And from what I've seen online, a lot of people did the same.

After Sunday's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), I expect they got a lot more before retreating, including one disturbingly specific one:



I'm gonna watch Kimmel this week to make sure he's not apologizing and that his monologues don't look like hostage videos. Then I'll re-subscribe.
 
Last edited:
Paramount/CBS is on its own trajectory, so I doubt if pressure will do very much there.

I'm inclined to agree if it's just a viewer thing, but I have to think this was a big factor for Disney:


Some stars said they'd never shoot another frame for Disney or ABC---and that includes Selena Gomez, who right now is a big star for them in Only Murders in the Building.

If...BIG if...the professionals turned around and did the same for Paramount---basically threatening their TV and movie production---including Warner Bros. if the merger goes through---I think it might....might...have an effect.

Right now, NBCUniversal seems to be standing firm(ish), and Disney just looked Trump in the eye and said "no", so CBS could end up being the Lone Ranger here.
 
Which brings me back to the question I asked earlier, what does Disney do this case? Do they shop it to other stations in those markets?
That's what I am wondering too- if I ran a station in a Nexstar pre-emption market my first call would be to ABC to see if they would want it cleared on my station somehow, somewhere, like maybe the second or duopoly station that isn't network affiliated (My Network TV doesn't count as an affiliation!). Or if I ran the ION stations I would offer to clear it on the ION channel (where it's an O&O) in those markets. Hint hint.

Val
 
That's what I am wondering too- if I ran a station in a Nexstar pre-emption market my first call would be to ABC to see if they would want it cleared on my station somehow, somewhere, like maybe the second or duopoly station that isn't network affiliated (My Network TV doesn't count as an affiliation!). Or if I ran the ION stations I would offer to clear it on the ION channel (where it's an O&O) in those markets. Hint hint.

Val

Paul Farhi is an acclaimed media reporter, formerly with the Washington Post, whose work appears in The Atlantic, The Athletic, Vanity Fair, The Daily Beast, and Columbia Journalism Review. His take:

Screenshot 2025-09-23 at 8.05.38 AM.jpeg
 
That's what I am wondering too- if I ran a station in a Nexstar pre-emption market my first call would be to ABC to see if they would want it cleared on my station somehow, somewhere, like maybe the second or duopoly station that isn't network affiliated (My Network TV doesn't count as an affiliation!). Or if I ran the ION stations I would offer to clear it on the ION channel (where it's an O&O) in those markets. Hint hint.

Val
But why would any station want to carry a show that has been losing viewers. According to Nielsen, Kimmel averaged only 129,000 viewers in the 18-49 bracket that advertisers covet in August, off from 212,000 in January and less than half his June peak of 284,000. They'd have to run the network spots and lose the local avails they would normally make money off of.
 
But why would any station want to carry a show that has been losing viewers.

Because it probably still makes money?


According to Nielsen, Kimmel averaged only 129,000 viewers in the 18-49 bracket that advertisers covet in August, off from 212,000 in January and less than half his June peak of 284,000.

Kimmel rather famously takes the entire summer off, returning on Labor Day (which, just in case I have to say this, is in September):

 
Good backgrounder piece on what happened between Wednesday of last week and yesterday, and how much weight former Disney CEO Michael Eisner's criticism of current CEO Bob Iger likely carried ("Where is the leadership?")

Essential pull-quote:

Two sources who have worked closely with Eisner said they believe he would have made a quick decision to threaten Sinclair and Nexstar, the two station groups that pledged to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! over the host’s edgy comment about the “MAGA gang’s” response to the Charlie Kirk assassination, with hellfire if they persisted in refusing to carry the show. “Michael doesn’t give a f**k what anybody else thinks if he thinks he’s doing the right thing,” a former Disney insider told me.

 


Here is more on the behind the scenes issues that Disney had to face when The View and Jimmy Kimmel faced an FCC Threat.
 
If...BIG if...the professionals turned around and did the same for Paramount---basically threatening their TV and movie production---including Warner Bros. if the merger goes through---I think it might....might...have an effect.
Colbert's remarks last night, as reported (I haven't had time to watch the recording yet) indicate that he's more skeptical of Paramount/CBS's reasoning for cancellation. It's not that he wasn't already skeptical, but the language, as reported, was sharper than it has been. What had been a hypothetical consequence came true with Jimmy Kimmel. The stakes are higher now. It's likely true that Ellison doesn't care all that much about linear TV, but if he wants to get rid of that business, he's not going to want to shop damaged goods. He also has to watch out for collateral damage to the businesses he keeps. I wouldn't raise the probability of a cancellation reversal much...maybe up from 1% to 2%...but these things have a way of gathering momentum.
 
Colbert's remarks last night, as reported (I haven't had time to watch the recording yet) indicate that he's more skeptical of Paramount/CBS's reasoning for cancellation. It's not that he wasn't already skeptical, but the language, as reported, was sharper than it has been.
I've posted this before, but if you haven't had time, it's germane.

Essential pull-quote from Kimmel about Colbert:

I just want to say that the idea that Stephen Colbert‘s show was losing $40 million a year is beyond nonsensical. These alleged insiders who supposedly analyze the budgets of the shows — I don’t know who they are, but I do know they don’t know what they’re talking about. They seem to only be focused on advertising revenue and have completely forgotten about affiliate fees, which number in the hundreds of millions — probably in total billions — and you must allocate a certain percentage of those fees to late-night shows. It really is surprising how little the media seems to know about how the media works. There’s just not a snowball’s chance in hell that that’s anywhere near accurate.

Full article:

 
Good backgrounder piece on what happened between Wednesday of last week and yesterday, and how much weight former Disney CEO Michael Eisner's criticism of current CEO Bob Iger likely carried ("Where is the leadership?")

But don't overlook this (from the same article):

And then there’s the question of Iger’s personal stature in Hollywood and beyond. He and his wife, Willow Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, were set to host a fundraiser at their home for women in media, and the host committee was considering pulling out.

How effective do you think Willow Bay would have been in her role if Iger kept caving? I doubt the journalism faculty at USC would have stayed quiet.

Always account for the influence of a spouse.

Between that and Eisner, that might have been enough of a catalyst for Iger not to let this go on.
 
But don't overlook this (from the same article):

And then there’s the question of Iger’s personal stature in Hollywood and beyond. He and his wife, Willow Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, were set to host a fundraiser at their home for women in media, and the host committee was considering pulling out.

How effective do you think Willow Bay would have been in her role if Iger kept caving? I doubt the journalism faculty at USC would have stayed quiet.

Always account for the influence of a spouse.

Between that and Eisner, that might have been enough of a catalyst for Iger not to let this go on.

I didn't overlook it. It just was the less-sexy pull-quote.

For those who don't know me:

*I never post based on a headline alone.

*I always read the post completely before deciding it's worth your time to read.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.


Back
Top Bottom