Brian Stelter

I thought it was unlikely his show was going to be back on broadcast TV because I was thinking to myself, these station owners were not going to let it go back.

They were too fearful of the Trump administration.

They were too concerned about pressure from Trump and Brendan Carr.

I think it is important there was this groundswell of public concern, all these free speech groups, all these First Amendment experts, all of these random ordinary consumers, right?

All these protesters outside Disneyland.

It's never a good look for Disney when you have free speech protesters outside Disneyland.

So, yeah, I think this story was unique in some ways amid all the other Trump controversies because it did create so much outrage and backlash.

And yes, I do think that made a difference.

We don't know for sure, right, what Disney was thinking.

We don't know what the bottom line impact of the cancellations were.

But I think what we do know for sure is that these executives love Jimmy Kimmel, they wanted the show to be back, and they decided by Monday the temperature had cooled down enough that they could do it, they could bring him back.

And now, here's the thing, right?

Kimmel's more powerful than ever because he's been explicitly approved and backed up by ABC.

Normally, we would say,

The Next Star and Sinclair total, they represent about 20% of the markets across the US where Kimmel show airs.

So normally, we would say, wow, 20% of the viewers can't watch Kimmel.

That's going to mean a ratings hit.

That's going to mean the ratings are going to drop.

That's going to be a big, big, bad problem for ABC.

But not in this case, right?