by Abb Jones
The Reelness

The boycott of American local TV media conglomerates Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group, the ABC network and parent company Disney over its indefinite suspension of late-night TV talk show host Jimmy Kimmel is gaining momentum, as critics decry ABC’s move as censorship that violates the U.S. constitution.

A growing chorus of Americans are angry that ABC and its parent company Disney have capitulated to President Donald Trump, who has been calling for the firing of Kimmel amidst CBS’ cancellation in July of top-rated Late Night with Stephen Colbert, another vocal Trump critic. Using the trending hashtags #cancelABC and #cancelDisney, a boycott is now underway, urging viewers to cancel their subscriptions to the Disney+, Hulu and ESPN streaming services and boycott all things ABC and Disney (including the theme parks and cruises).

Disney announced last month that they would no longer share subscriber numbers with the public, but insiders report there currently are “multiple levels of freakout internally” at Disney.

That boycott is also taking aim at the Nexstar and Sinclair television conglomerates, the two media behemoths that own a respective 200 and 193 local TV stations across the nation. They were the ones that informed ABC they would not be airing Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Sinclair in particular is known for being extremely far-right, even forcing its stations to air stories favorable to Donald Trump. Sinclair’s duplicity was exposed in a dramatic 2018 video below that shows dozens of Sinclair local TV market anchors reading word-for-word a required commentary slamming other news outlets and accusing them of political bias.

Just last month, Nexstar announced it wanted to buy Tegna, another local TV station conglomerate, for a $6.2 billion dollars – a deal that would give Nexstar 39% of the nation’s TV stations and would require FCC approval to bypass the already-relaxed FCC laws aimed at limiting local TV station ownership. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a loyal Trump appointee and 2020 election denier, has been a vocal opponent of Kimmel.

When CBS announced Colbert’s cancellation in July 2025, it called the decision “purely a financial” one, coming on the heels of CBS settling a lawsuit filed by President Trump that was widely considered frivolous.  A week later, the FCC announced it had approved Skydance’s $8.4 billion acquisition of Paramount CBS. The David Ellison-backed company is reportedly seeking to next acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes Warner Bros. studios, HBO, HGTV, CNN, TBS and Cartoon Network.