Jimmy Kimmel was set to return to late night TV on ABC stations across the country tonight after being suspended for comments about murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk, but his show’s future in Maine is not entirely clear.
One of Maine’s two ABC affiliate stations, WVII in Bangor, would not say if it will carry “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after Tuesday. The station’s general manager, Michael Palmer, said in an email Tuesday that the station plans “on airing the show tonight” and that he would not comment further. He declined to say whether or when the show will be back on a permanent basis.
Maine’s other ABC affiliate, WMTW in Portland, did not answer questions via email and text asking if the show will return Tuesday night. The show is listed as airing on both stations this week on program guides compiled by a service called Titan TV, and available on each station’s website.
Though ABC announced Monday it would allow Kimmel’s program to continue on its network, ABC does not control all its affiliate stations. Two companies that own more than 20 percent of all ABC affiliate stations, Sinclair and Nexstar, have said they will keep the show off their stations indefinitely.
Neither of those companies own the ABC affiliates in Maine, according to the Maine Association of Broadcasters and both company’s websites. Sinclair owns two Portland stations, CBS affiliate WGME and Fox affiliate WPFO.
WVII in Bangor is owned by Rockfleet Broadcasting, according to the Federal Communications Commission website, while WMTW is owned by Hearst Television. Neither company has been mentioned as joining a boycott of Kimmel’s program.
Besides ABC affiliates, there are other ways to watch Kimmel’s show in Maine, including several streaming services like Fubo, DirecTV and Hulu + Live TV. Both of Maine’s ABC affiliates are carried on cable systems and are available for free over the air, with a digital antenna.
ABC had suspended Kimmel indefinitely on Sept. 17, in the wake of criticism over his comments about Kirk’s death and the reaction of conservatives to it. Kirk was shot and killed on Sept. 10 while at the campus of Utah Valley University. Tyler Robinson, 22, has been charged with capital murder in the shooting.
In a monologue on his show after the shooting, Kimmel said that “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk” and that “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
In announcing Kimmel’s return on Monday, ABC said in a statement that network officials had “spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
The statement also said the decision to suspend Kimmel indefinitely had been made “because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.”