Sacramento viewers protest at ABC station after Jimmy Kimmel’s show was pulled
Sara Nichols, a Southside Park resident, had planned to spend Thursday working on a book she’s writing.
Then at 8 a.m., Nichols learned of a protest an hour later outside ABC10’s studio. The protest came after “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was taken off-air, following pressure from the Trump administration after remarks Kimmel had made related to the slaying of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last week in Utah.
The network, which is owned by Disney, halted production for the late night show Wednesday and said it would be “pre-empted indefinitely,” according to USA Today.
Less than two hours after Nichols got word of the protest, she stood on Broadway holding a sign that read “First Amendment” and wearing a baseball cap with a Mickey Mouse logo. She admitted that the hat was a conscious choice. While Disney owns ABC, it does not own KXTV, Channel 10, an affiliate owned by a different company.
“It’s sort of ironic,” Nichols said. “I’m just thinking, ‘Don’t Mickey Mouse with the Constitution’ is what I would have written on a sign if I had had more time.”
About 15 people had joined the protest an hour in. East Sacramento resident Susan Brown, who helped coordinate the event, said she had been affiliated with Indivisible but noted the demonstration was not officially organized through the group.
“We’re doing it on our own, but we have advertised it through Indivisible and Sacramento 5051,” Brown said. “I guess you could say we’re sort of rogue Indivisible.”
Brown called Bushard on Wednesday around 5 p.m. to organize the protest as the news of Kimmel’s suspension broke. Bushard, who is also involved in the local Indivisible chapter, has organized other protests at KTXL-TV — the Fox affiliate known as Fox40, which is owned by Nexstar Broadcasting — that have drawn as many as 45 people. She admitted Thursday’s turnout was sparse early on, though she was hopeful what it might accomplish.
“Whether you agree with Jimmy Kimmel or like the show or anything else, free speech is a basic constitutional right and our goal is to protect those rights,” Bushard said outside ABC10’s studio.
Although ABC10 didn’t make the decision to sideline Kimmel, the protesters saw a broader concern.
KXTV is owned by Tegna, a national chain of TV stations spun off by Gannett a decade ago. Nexstar Media Group, the owner of Fox 40 and nearly 200 stations coast to coast, recently announced it would acquire Tegna. The move would require FCC approval for the transfer of Tegna’s broadcasting licenses.
If approved, the $6.2 billion transaction would give Nexstar control of 265 stations in 44 states, covering 80% of U.S. television households. The merger faces heightened scrutiny at the Federal Communications Commission, where Chair Brendan Carr has adopted an aggressive interpretation of the agency’s mandate to ensure programming is in the “public interest.”
Nexstar voiced criticism of Kimmel following his Monday night monologue that included a joke about Kirk’s accused killer, as did the FCC’s Carr. The Trump appointee told podcaster Benny Johnson about ABC’s need to correct course following Kimmel’s remarks: “Frankly, when you see stuff like this — I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said.
During that broadcast, Kimmel appeared to mock conservative reactions to Kirk’s killing and suggested right-wing figures were politicizing the tragedy while distancing themselves from Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old charged in Kirk’s murder.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend,” Kimmel said in Monday’s show, “with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
Nexstar said Wednesday that it “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk and will replace the show with other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets.”
Tara Albertoni, a Carmichael resident who brought her 4-year-old Corgi, Merlin, to the protest at ABC10, criticized what she described as a pattern of media companies yielding to pressure from President Donald Trump.
In June, ABC News agreed to pay Trump an undisclosed sum to settle a defamation lawsuit over comments made during a 2021 segment. The following month, CBS — owned by Paramount — paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump over how “60 Minutes” edited an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 election. In July, CBS announced it would end “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in 2026, citing low ratings for the comedian who frequently targeted Trump and conservatives. Days later, the FCC approved an $8 billion deal for Skydance Media to acquire Paramount and CBS, which owns and operates KOVR, the Sacramento CBS affiliate, and KMAX, an idendepent station.
“We’re here to represent free speech and… (are) demanding that they stop complying and bowing the knee,” Albertoni said.
The protest might have quietly had support from station rank-and-file. Jeannette Stevenson, an Oak Park resident, walked down the sidewalk outside ABC10 holding a Hefty bag stuffed with snacks that she said had been provided by a station employee.
“I know that the people up top who capitulated, they want to do their merger,” Stevenson said of the pending Nexstar deal, worth $6.2 billion. “So nothing’s going to happen there, but we can wake up the people on the street to speak out and be more vocal to save their rights.”
A spokesperson for Tegna was not immediately available for comment.
This story was originally published September 18, 2025 at 1:02 PM.
