☀️ More AMAZON TV Exec Tumult
The Kimmel TV affiliate situation / More spec sale 🔥 / MPRM exodus to 42WEST spurs flap
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LINKEDIN here if ya like or email me at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Thursday, September 18, 2025.
Where that’s 2 late night TV hosts down in Trump 2.0’s first 9 months . . . a happy dystopian morning to all.
I don’t think you need me to get you up to speed here, including the great ironies of #CancelCulture bizarro world comments afoot, and DISNEY has yet to put out a statement as to exactly why Jimmy Kimmel Live is now on indefinite hiatus . . . other than to say that he’s on indefinite hiatus.
But, this was seemingly done in response to threats made by FCC Commish Brendan Carr on a right-wing podcast on behalf of the “public interest” — a day after saying “Our First Amendment, our free speech tradition, protects almost all speech.”
Probably also worthy mentioning that Carr’s threats yesterday were statements that uh, Brendan Carr 2019 seemingly would take umbrage with.
Ah, what does that guy know anyway! The FCC Commish’s comments were subsequently followed by action from America’s largest local TV station group (and CW owner) NEXSTAR, which said it was pulling the show, as did the SINCLAIR TV group, which also requested that Kimmel donate to the Kirk family, because that’s totally in line with how a business relationship with your TV affiliate group works.
When asked for comment about DISNEY’s moves by Status, Carr responded with simply “😀,” like a true American communications leader.
Some notes on reach here:
SINCLAIR is ABC’s largest single affiliate TV station group at 40 stations.
NEXSTAR has 32 ABC stations.
Combined, that’s about 1/3 of ABC’s national local TV station count (ABC/DISNEY owns its stations in the top U.S. markets).
JKL averaged 1.8M linear TV viewers in Q2 this year.
His monologues are by far the most watched videos on his YOUTUBE page, typically garnering about 2M to 3M views.
The one in question on Monday only seems to have a slight bump, currently at 3.6M views.
Kimmel’s contract is also up in 2026.
So, seemingly not a DISNEY decision based on Kimmel’s monologue directly, which were made on Monday (i.e., nearly 48 hours before the decision to pull Kimmel), which went largely unnoticed in the greater media complex on Tuesday — at least on the greater cultural outrage meter — but rather the decision was made in response to the FCC leader threats yesterday.
BIGGER PICTURE: It’s also crucial to note the business environment surrounding these events, which I think really says it all here:
#1 TV station group NEXSTAR has a pending deal to buy the 3rd largest group in TEGNA, which will need FCC approval as broadcast licenses are involved.
DISNEY has a deal pending with the NFL, as well as a deal with FUBO.
While those deals don’t require FCC approval:
The DOJ is currently looking at the FUBO deal, which was planned to close late this year or Q1 26.
Then the DOJ is expected to review the NFL deal as well, which would result in the NFL taking an ownership stake in ESPN, and is not likely to close until sometime later next year.
As for what’s ahead — Colbert recorded his show yesterday before DISNEY made the call to take Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air, so lotta eyes on The Late Show tonight (along with Fallon and Seth and TDS).
I’ll also be attending a panel this afternoon with Letterman on stage at the Atlantic Festival, which should also be noteworthy. Jimmy Fallon canceled his planned appearance at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in NYC scheduled for today.
AH: Sorry, PARAMOUNT NYC employees — you may be able to get your coffee at Central Perk when you’re back in the Times Square office 5 days a week in 2026 . . . but you won’t be able to play the slots on the way into work in the morning 😏. CAESARS’ proposal to put in a casino at 1515 Broadway was officially rejected by community advisory committees.
THEN: Granted, this is just a HUB ENTERTAINMENT RESEARCH poll of 1,600 U.S. broadband customers, but here’s a snapshot of how age really affects TV usage.
Main default / first thing you turn on for TV viewing:
16-34s:
56%: An SVOD streamer
NETFLIX had a 26% share of that
32%: Live TV (cable or antenna)
35+:
15%: An SVOD streamer
42%: Live TV (cable or antenna)
WELL: Hollywood assistants, add “bank teller” to the list of jobs where you would be making more money (based on the salaries I see listed in the jobs on my Tuesday job board each week), as BANK OF AMERICA just raised the minimum pay to $25 an hour.
OH: The head of ANTHROPIC AI put the odds of the future of AI going "really, really badly” at 25%. Enjoy your day.
This is the same CEO who said AI could eliminate 50% of white collar entry-level jobs back in May.
Ah, I see you can still apply to lead ANTHROPIC’s Corp Comms here if ya like. Huh.
Also, just something to keep in mind — the “AI correction” in the market, whenever it comes, may not be driven by things like a significant earnings miss one quarter or hitting a wall in funding . . . but rather by some sort of AI-driven catastrophic event that destroys trust in the tech.
AH: Always nice when the phone call you try to make on your new smart glasses via the global messaging app you own . . . doesn’t go through despite repeated attempts in your big new META Glasses presentation. Eh, whadda ya want for $800?
Well, at least Zuck tried to make the term “metaverse” a thing again, via the “feeling of presence using realistic holograms” that the glasses are supposed to provide, alongside “personal superintelligence,” of course.
YAH: College football finally made a move to both eliminate the bi-annual “portal” windows where players student-athletes can change schools, and move the remaining window out of December, which was messing with the College Football Playoffs.
The new transfer portal window is Jan. 2 to Jan. 11 each year, beginning the day after the New Year’s bowl/CFP games.
AND: Elsewhere in multiple-home mortgage news we can all relate to — U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent apparently also cited 2 homes as “primary residences” on mortgage applications in 2007, which mortgage experts cite as not showing any signs of wrongdoing.
Thus, I’m gonna say Scott is not going to have to go through the legal costs of defending his actions, thanks to the whims of the U.S. President, unlike Fed Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, whose 2021 mortgage situation was described as “similar” by Bloomberg.
PLUS: REDDIT is in talks with GOOGLE to deepen integration with its product, about 18 months after making a $60M data sharing deal.
It’s also in talks with both GOOGLE and OPENAI about adding a “dynamic pricing” component to their business relationships . . . whereby REDDIT would get paid more if its data is used more, according to Bloomberg.
FINALLY: SPOTIFY has now reached new multi-year licensing deals with the 3 major labels this year, securing the final outlier in SONY MUSIC this week.
No word on the terms, or what new things SPOTIFY may be able to do with its product offering as a result . . . but certainly something to keep an eye on.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
UNI’s Him is the big new entrant, although the consensus out there now seems to be more mid to upper teens, vs. the low $20M that I had been seeing earlier.
But — as this month has reminded us, horror can always surprise ya. Of note, reviews were embargoed until this morning.
THANKS!
To FX for the invite last night to check out The Lowdown, the new series from Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs). Really enjoyed it, with great performances all around. Look forward to checking out the rest this fall on HULU and a recommend to others as well.
It was also nice to be there for John Solberg’s final FX premiere before his previously announced departure from the company.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
