On September 17th, ABC and its parent company Disney made the decision to pull late late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live! Off the air “indefinitely” but made the decision on Monday to reinstate the show starting Tuesday after pushback from consumers as well as threats of a boycott by subscribers to Disney+ and Hulu, both owned by ABC’s parent company, Disney. 

However, here in Maine Kimmel’s return was not viewable on the Maine ABC affiliate as well as in at least 70 other abc affiliates across the united states. Leaving many people who were anticipating the return of the show. There are some other ways to view the program even in these affected areas. 

What is an Affiliate station? And can they choose not to air National Shows?

An affiliate station also known as a Local affiliate, is a TV station that is run similarly as a franchise where the local owners have a contract with a National broadcast company to broadcast the movies,shows, News or sports owned by that company. For Example here in Maine, CBS Shows Are broadcast on WGME 13 which is Maine’s Only CBS Affiliate. In order to keep their contract with the national broadcast company, they are required to complete certain quotas as well as make a set amount of profit off of their broadcasts for the national broadcast corporation. The exact terms of the contract are not known publicly so it is unknown at this time if Sinclair and Nextstar are in violation of their contracts by making the decision not to broadcast Jimmy Kimmel Live! On their stations.

Where can I watch Jimmy Kimmel Live? 

If you wish to watch Jimmy Kimmel Live and you live in Maine or in any other area affected by this decision by Sinclair, there are a few ways to watch Jimmy Kimmel Live! If you do not want to spend money on a subscription, you can watch it on Youtube and tiktok. If you wish you can also view it on hulu and disney+.