Sinclair Broadcasting Group doubled down on Monday, saying that despite an agreement reached earlier in the day by ABC and late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel, their ABC affiliates would not air “Jimmy Kimmel Live” when it returns to ABC on Tuesday.

Sinclair owns nearly 40 ABC affiliates across the country — including one in the nation’s capital — and while those affiliates will preempt Kimmel’s show for the time being, the broadcasting group released a statement indicating that a deal could be reached in the future.

Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming. Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return. pic.twitter.com/beGC6VID2x

— Sinclair, Inc. (@WeAreSinclair) September 22, 2025

“Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming. Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return,” the statement read.

Sinclair’s statement came just hours after ABC parent-company Disney announced that Kimmel’s show would return on Tuesday after several days off the air.

“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country. It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday,” a spokesperson for Disney told Fox News Digital.

Kimmel landed in timeout several days earlier after backlash over comments he made about the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.

“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,” said Kimmel at the time.

Shortly after his comments went viral, both Nexstar and Sinclair announced plans to preempt the comedian’s show. The two broadcast companies own or control nearly 80 ABC affiliates between them.

Daily Wire host Michael Knowles has joined the lineup as Turning Point USA announced plans to forge ahead with the campus tour begun by founder Charlie Kirk before his assassination at Utah Valley University on September 10.

The amended schedule was released on Monday, just hours before the first event was to kick off at Minnesota State University with Knowles stepping into the debate tent in Kirk’s place.

https://t.co/zY8m5pkx9v pic.twitter.com/BFpqmZsVVl

— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) September 22, 2025

The next event, scheduled for Wednesday, will feature Sirius XM podcast host Megyn Kelly and Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA). TPUSA will return to Utah with a September 30 visit to Utah State University, and speakers there will include TPUSA’s Alex Clark alongside Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT).

More events are scheduled to follow, with speakers including entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Governor Greg Gianforte (R-MT), radio host Glenn Beck, former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, Allie Beth Stuckey, Governor Jeff Landry (R-LA), actor Rob Schneider, and Frank Turek.

Knowles spoke about his imminent appearance at University of Minnesota during an appearance on “Fox & Friends First” on Monday.

THAT WILL CONTINUE: Over 90,000 Mourners Gathered In Arizona To Remember The Life Of Charlie Kirk As A New Chapter of TPUSA Has Just Begun.
Host Of ‘The Michael Knowles Show’ And Host Of Today’s University Of Minnesota TPUSA Event @michaeljknowles Joined F&F First This Morning. pic.twitter.com/YtjLYQ0lGE

— Fox & Friends First (@FoxFriendsFirst) September 22, 2025

“I will appear tonight. There will be an empty chair on stage. I will give a tribute to Charlie and then we will open up the floor to an open conversation,” Knowles said of his plans for the event.

“Charlie’s enemies will not have stopped that. People who disagree can, like at all of his events, cut to the front of the line and we will continue to have a healthy debate,” he added. “I think that Charlie’s enemies thought that they could not only silence him, but, in fact, silence his whole movement. That will not happen. In fact, they will not even silence his speaking tour.”