Kimmel returns Tuesday

[Mark Roberts]

I would like to comment on these, but that would move us even further away from broadcasting.

Well, you're the one who interjected politics into the most recent posts of this thread, so quit whining and go look in the mirror if you're pointing fingers.

 

[TheBigA]

Kelly Ripa & Mark Consuelos discussed the Kimmel story on their morning show:

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos make rare political comment after Jimmy Kimmel returns to ABC

The “Live With Kelly and Mark” hosts praised Kimmel following his return to his late-night show on Tuesday.

pagesix.com

'Live': Kelly Ripa & Mark Consuelos Say Disney Did the 'Right Thing' Bringing Jimmy Kimmel Back On Air

Kimmel returned to his ABC late-night show on Tuesday, September 23.

www.tvinsider.com

Their show airs on ABC stations, including those owned by Nexstar and Sinclair.

 

[Mark Roberts]

It's an interesting situation that Fox discovered a long time ago. It's one of the reasons they've avoided using Fox News coverage on their local O&O stations. The markets where Fox owns TV stations are reliably very blue cities. That's the case for many Nexstar and Sinclair stations. So having a station taking a side in a political issue doesn't serve the local public interest.

Actually, there is a newscall service (or whatever they call it in TV; I'm using a radio term) for Fox O&Os. KTVU uses it all the time. That service doesn't have much of a political slant that I've ever been able to discern. Some of the reporters filing reports seem a bit inexperienced to be at the network level, and the style is just a little hyper and doesn't match the general style of KTVU, but I don't think it's hurt KTVU's credibility much if at all. It is true that KTVU had a very strong news brand to start with. That's probably why the station doesn't just identify as "Fox 2" but also as "KTVU" and has retained the station's longtime logo. When Amber Eikel was ND of KTVU, she once told me that Fox was fairly hands-off as far as the local news operation was concerned.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Harry Jessell, who has been very favorable to Perry Sook and Nexstar since his days at Broadcasting & Cable, came out with a damning op-ed against him this morning.

Jessell: A First Amendment Win, And A Crossroads For Nexstar

In an eventful week for free speech in Jimmy Kimmel’s broadcast return, Disney redeemed itself and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr was in retreat. Now eyes turn to Nexstar’s next move.

tvnewscheck.com

Essential pull-quote:

CEO Perry Sook has grand ambitions to join the ranks of the major media players with a first-class broadcast network, a full-blown news operation and — not incidentally — become a billionaire in the process. I have been cheering his rise in the pages of Broadcasting & Cable and TVNewsCheck for years.

To take the next step, Sook needs Carr to lift or waive the station ownership cap so Nexstar can close on its $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna and extend its national reach to 80% of the country.

By going along with Carr’s plan to defenestrate Kimmel, Sook may have thought he was only sealing the deal with Carr. But now that Kimmel has joined Charlie Kirk in the pantheon of First Amendment heroes, Sook’s course is not so clear or easy.

If he breaks with Carr and continues to preempt Kimmel [sic], he risks seeing his Tegna merger application rejected — or more likely, slow rolled or permanently shelved.

If he sticks with Carr, he’ll get the stamp of approval. But he’ll also be remembered as a sellout: the broadcaster who gave aid and comfort to Carr in his unholy war against ABC, CBS and NBC, and who helped undercut the free speech rights of every person who ever stepped in front of a broadcast microphone or camera.

I’ll wrap up with an admonition from Bob Corn-Revere, a First Amendment attorney and advocate who once worked for the late FCC Commissioner James Quello. He discussed the Kimmel affair on the Charlie Rose podcast.

“There is never a one-time payment to an extortionist,” he said. “If you give up your rights, you’re likely to see demands to give up more.”

Come on, Perry. Do you really want to be owned by a guy like Carr?

 

[Rusty Muck]

Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy's opposition to the Nexstar-Tegna deal got a significant signal boost from the New York Post. That the Post is the source is a major breadcrumb.

Nexstar facing opposition from conservatives over $6.2B merger despite sidelining Jimmy Kimmel

“I don’t think Trump’s regulators will approve this no matter how long Nexstar suspends Kimmel,” said one media insider who is close to the White House.

nypost.com

Those include significant opposition from Republicans on Capitol Hill and two right-leaning news networks, One America News Network and, more importantly, Newsmax. The latter is of particular concern as Newsmax’s CEO, Chris Ruddy, has close ties to top GOP lawmakers, the Trump White House and President Trump himself, according to insiders.

The argument is that Nexstar’s continued suspension of Kimmel — who failed to apologize on Tuesday for his false claims about Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin — is nothing more than a ruse to convince the White House its programming is watchful for left-wing bias as it seeks approval for the Tegna deal, and Nexstar will control far too much of the local broadcast market if the deal proceeds.

Sources close to the matter say these criticisms are starting to carry added weight inside the White House and with its regulators at the Federal Communications Commission.

 

[TheBigA]

Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy's opposition to the Nexstar-Tegna deal got a significant signal boost from the New York Post. That the Post is the source is a major breadcrumb.

Of course the Post is owned by Murdoch, and his Fox network competes against Nexstar in a lot of markets. The last thing they want to do is compete against them as a network with 80% national coverage. Right now Nexstar only owns 12 Fox affiliates.

 

[johnbasalla]

Well, you're the one who interjected politics into the most recent posts of this thread, so quit whining and go look in the mirror if you're pointing fingers.

I was not whining or pointing fingers. I was just commenting on items posted here.

 

[radiofan2023]

 

[Mark Roberts]

Of course the Post is owned by Murdoch, and his Fox network competes against Nexstar in a lot of markets. The last thing they want to do is compete against them as a network with 80% national coverage. Right now Nexstar only owns 12 Fox affiliates.

How many Fox markets would a Nexstar-Tegna combination comprise? I don't recall that there are many Tegna Fox affiliates.

 

[TheBigA]

How many Fox markets would a Nexstar-Tegna combination comprise? I don't recall that there are many Tegna Fox affiliates.

TEGNA-owned FOX affiliates: KXVA in Abilene, TX; WPMT in Harrisburg, PA.; WTIC in Hartford, CT; WZDX in Huntsville, AL; KIDY in San Angelo, TX; and KMSB in Tucson, AZ.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Of course the Post is owned by Murdoch, and his Fox network competes against Nexstar in a lot of markets. The last thing they want to do is compete against them as a network with 80% national coverage. Right now Nexstar only owns 12 Fox affiliates.

It's actually a lot more than that. Nexstar has 38 total Fox affiliates, seven of which are on subchannels of other Big Four affiliates under their control.

Nexstar also operates 13 stations owned by satellite companies: eleven by Mission Broadcasting, one by White Knight Broadcasting, and one by Cunningham Broadcasting (which otherwise exists as a shell for Sinclair).

Tegna Inc., btw, has six Fox affiliates and operates a seventh owned by a satellite company (that being WUPW in Toledo); one of them is leased out to Gray (KMSB). So if the merger actually went through, Nexstar would own and/or operate 58 Fox affiliates total.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

'South Park' Gives FCC's Brendan Carr Explosive Diarrhea and Nearly Takes Away His 'Freedom of Speech' amid Kimmel Controversy

'South Park' aired its first episode since Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show was pulled by ABC. The episode comes after series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone announced there would be no new episode airing on Sept. 17, one day before the decision about the comedian was made public.

people.com

South Park returns to TV since Charlie Kirk’s death. This time the parody is directed at Chairman Carr and his recent drama at the FCC.

 

[tall_guy1]

'South Park' Gives FCC's Brendan Carr Explosive Diarrhea and Nearly Takes Away His 'Freedom of Speech' amid Kimmel Controversy

'South Park' aired its first episode since Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show was pulled by ABC. The episode comes after series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone announced there would be no new episode airing on Sept. 17, one day before the decision about the comedian was made public.

people.com

South Park returns to TV since Charlie Kirk’s death. This time the parody is directed at Chairman Carr and his recent drama at the FCC.

Was a funny episode. Funny the way they subverted other current events into that storyline and was glad they stayed off Kirk's death (there were other times years ago they "went there" like Steve Irwin in 2006.)

 

[MarcB]

Nexstar's WTNH in New Haven, CT reports a dozen protesters at their station this afternoon over Nexstar's decision to black out Jimmy.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Protesters To WTNH & Nexstar: Stop Censoring Jimmy Kimmel - New Haven Independent

Two dozen people gathered outside WTNH’s Elm Street headquarters on Thursday to call on the ABC-affiliated, Nexstar-owned station to resist censorship and air Jimmy Kimmel Live!

www.newhavenindependent.org

Here is more fallout as Nexstar as WTNH faces protests over the Jimmy Kimmel pre-emptions.

 

[RFCCRadioAudio]

Apologies to Matt Damon, Nexstar and Sinclair ran out of time for his running joke on Kimmel.

 

[CTListener]

Apologies to Matt Damon, Nexstar and Sinclair ran out of time for his running joke on Kimmel.

Huh??? What is this word salad?

 

[TVCOOL]

Nexstar's WTNH in New Haven, CT reports a dozen protesters at their station this afternoon over Nexstar's decision to black out Jimmy.

I bet most of the protesters don't even stay up to watch Jimmy Kimmel Live

 

[Loverofradio]

I’ve never been more assured that Nexstar’s deal with Tegna won’t go through.

 

[michael hagerty]

Huh??? What is this word salad?

It's a running joke. Every night since 2005, Jimmy includes in his sign-off:

"Apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time."

It was just a toss-off, one time joke, but Matt Damon thought it was funny and suggested they keep it going, which they've done for 20 years, leading to some pretty elaborate bits, including these (the first two are from when Jimmy was single and dating comedian Sarah Silverman---and Jimmy's staff kept the video that's the center of the bit from Jimmy---it was a complete surprise to him):

Ben Affleck is rather famously Matt Damon's best friend, and Affleck's then-wife, Jennifer Garner came up with the idea for a video in response and got a lot of friends (Brad Pitt, Robin Williams, Harrison Ford) involved:

And in 2013, we got this: