Jimmy Kimmel is back tonight on ABC.
The irony is, fans in his hometown of Las Vegas won’t be able to see his show. Kimmel’s parents moved there from Brooklyn when he was nine years old.
Fans there who were betting on seeing his triumphant return tonight have lost…for the time being.
Conservative broadcaster Sinclair owns the local station and won’t allow Kimmel to be seen for fear it will offend the viewers, most of whom are connected to the casino world. Sinclair thinks they’d be scandalized or offended.
Sinclair controls 38 ABC stations across the country, and Kimmel’s show is banned by them.
Same for Nexstar, which has 28 stations and is run by similar puritans who can’t take a joke.
I wish I could say these stations are just in redneck areas, but they are also in big cities like Washington, DC and Providence, Rhode Island.
Of course, fans can still watch Kimmel on Disney Plus, and in clips on You Tube on Twitter.
If you have DirectTV, it shouldn’t be an issue.
Viewers in areas that are blocked out by censorship should contact their stations and complain that small minds are controlling their viewing preferences.
Both Nexstar and Sinclair are bowing to pressure from Donald Trump, who hates Kimmel and controls FCC decisions about the companies’ corporate mergers.
