New: ABC to Bring Back Kimmel; Mamdani Boycotts ABC Debate

As John just noted in an update, this should put Kimmel on the air tomorrow night, but the real question will be on how many channels. ABC and Disney have a number of owned-and-operated stations, but a significant number of ABC stations are affiliates. Two companies own most of those, and so far they're not talking about whether they plan to restore that time slot:

Despite Kimmel’s return, it is not immediately clear if he will be available across the entire country. Sinclair, for its part, had said that it would not go back to running Kimmel’s show on its stations until the late night host apologized for his comments, met with Sinclair representatives, and made a donation to Turning Point, the organization that Kirk founded. Sinclair, it should be noted, owns the ABC station in the Washington D.C. metro area, among other markets.

Nexstar, similarly, could also choose to continue to preempt the show, though of course it wiould still be accessible online across the country after it runs on ABC.

Worth noting: Sinclair hit reverse on their plan to air a Charlie Kirk tribute in Kimmel's slot last week, and not just because Michael Eisner got his panties in a twist.

Sinclair Broadcast Group abruptly cancelled plans to air a Charlie Kirk tribute last week after the company’s local ABC affiliates received multiple violent threats — forcing the firm to move the program to YouTube just minutes before it was scheduled to begin, The Post has learned.

The Baltimore-based local TV giant, which owns more than 40 ABC affiliates, yanked the Charlie Kirk tribute late Friday after it was alerted to “local threats directed at specific local ABC stations resulting from [the] ABC suspension” of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, a source close to the situation told The Post. ...

In addition to scrapping the Charlie Kirk tribute, Sinclair placed additional security measures at all of its facilities, according to the source.

In fairness, Sinclair had better reasons to reconsider. A Sacramento ABC affiliate got shot up last week, likely as something a bit more violent than a normal boycott. Celebrity Family Feud was definitely the safer choice, under the circumstances.

However, this makes Kimmel's return even more questionable. Sinclair execs angrily demanded concessions from Kimmel before allowing his show to air, and thus far, we've seen nothing from Kimmel or Disney about whether those conditions have been met. Eisner's public criticism may have changed minds at Disney, but it will mean next to nothing at Sinclair's headquarters, and perhaps even less than that. Stay tuned, so to speak.

You know who may be the big loser? This week, Zohran Mamdani had planned to address voters in a New York City town hall hosted by the local ABC affiliate. This could have forced Mamdani to face some pointed questions about his past statements, his capital-punishing proposals, his disdain for law enforcement, and so on. Mamdani -- a rather charming and glib fellow -- may have been able to handle it well enough, but he hasn't actually been well tested in this kind of competitive format.

And after this week, he still won't be tested in that competitive format. Mamdani declared that he would boycott ABC's forum in solidarity with fellow radical-progressive Jimmy Kimmel, for, er ... reasons:

NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani will not be participating in a Town Hall event with WABC this week due to the parent company’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel‘s late-night show.

“We cannot understand this moment of authoritarianism as solely coming from the White House, when it is also characterized by the cowardice of those in response to it — the cowardice that we have seen typified whether by the parent company of ABC or by so-called leaders like Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams looking to the White House for their path to their future ambition. I am running to be the next mayor of the city to finally make clear what it looks like to stand up, not just for this city, but also for the Constitution,” Mamdani said at an event in New York Monday. 

Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City major, was meant to participate in the town hall with the ABC News affiliate on Sept. 25. He announced his withdrawal at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms State Park on Roosevelt Island, while citing that he was withdrawing in response to the “corporate leaders who have put their bottom line ahead of their responsibility in upholding the freedom of the press.” 

Ahem. Jimmy Kimmel is not "the press." He's not part of the news division at all. ABC News has nothing to do with the decision to take Kimmel off the air, and Kimmel's departure did nothing to impact the reporting of news on ABC's stations. 

It didn't take long for Andrew Cuomo to point this out. Cuomo also criticized Kimmel's suspension, but accused Mamdani of using it as an excuse to chicken out:

In response to Mamdani's comments, Cuomo campaign spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said that "ABC suspending Kimmel was a big mistake, but refusing to talk to local reporters because of the actions of their parent company shouldn’t pass anyone’s smell test and the press shouldn’t continue to give him a pass."

Azzopardi accused Mamdani of "running from reporters" in the months since the June primary "and refusing to answer direct questions on" various campaign positions.

In terms of cynical political strategy, Mamdani is on solid ground nonetheless. The latest Marist poll shows Mamdani way out in front; he's at 45% in a four-way race, with Cuomo a distant second at 24%. He's just a few weeks out from an election win, probably an easy one if these numbers hold up. Democrat Socialist he may be, but Mamdani can do basic math. It would take an epic disaster to lose a 20-point lead in less than two months -- and one of the few ways to get an epic disaster is to speak at a town hall event without the talent or experience to avoid said disaster. 

Of course, the avoidance strategy has one flaw. Mamdani still has to show up to a debate in October, a couple of weeks before the election. Mamdani may have a tough time coming up with an excuse to boycott NBC, but maybe Warner will kick Jimmy Fallon off the air in the next three weeks. Fingers crossed!