We were all set to start our weekend a little early and were searching for our trusty blender to whip up some libations when the news alert popped up from The Hollywood Reporter:

“Jimmy Kimmel Returning to Sinclair Stations as Premption Ends"

Color us very not surprised.

We just didn’t see a way that the leadership of Sinclair Broadcast Group, which is headquartered in Cockeysville, Maryland, could realistically hope to holdout for too long after Disney had decided to return “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to the network this past Tuesday night. As we noted at the beginning of the week, as the nation’s largest operator of local ABC stations, the contracts that each Sinclair station has with ABC (and parent company Disney) didn’t give them a whole lot of options.

And while we thought Kimmel’s on-air apology certainly appeared to be genuine and heartfelt, it was clear from the rest of his monologue and the episodes that have followed this week that he wasn’t about to donate to the murdered Charlie Kirk’s organization, “Turning Point USA” as Sinclair had demanded as a condition before they would return Kimmel to their stations.

But in their statement today, Sinclair made no mention of any donation, stating:

"Our objective throughout this process has been to ensure that programming remains accurate and engaging for the widest possible audience. We take seriously our responsibility as local broadcasters to provide programming that serves the interests of our communities, while also honoring our obligations to air national network programming."

Yeah, that sounds like the “obligations” involved far outweighed the “objective,” no matter how they saw their “responsibility."

But in a later paragraph, the folks at SBG seem to say “it wasn’t for lack of trying"

"In our ongoing and constructive discussions with ABC, Sinclair proposed measures to strengthen accountability, viewer feedback, and community dialogue, including a network-wide independent ombudsman. These proposals were suggested as collaborative efforts between the ABC affiliates and the ABC network. While ABC and Disney have not yet adopted these measures, and Sinclair respects their right to make those decisions under our network affiliate agreements, we believe such measures could strengthen trust and accountability."

To us, that sounds like the folks at Disney/ABC said something along the lines of “Thanks for those suggestions, we’ll take them under advisement for when hell freezes over."

And then there is a key paragraph to appease anyone who might think that they did all this because of what anyone in the federal government might have had to say:

"Our decision to preempt this program was independent of any government interaction or influence. Free speech provides broadcasters with the right to exercise judgment as to the content on their local stations. While we understand that not everyone will agree with our decisions about programming, it is simply inconsistent to champion free speech while demanding that broadcasters air specific content."

Well, alrighty then. That seems like a very solid denial of any outside influence on your decision-making, then or now. Nice to work in that first amendment callback, which has the whole veneer of nobility just wrapped around this whole episode.

Frankly, we were hoping to see a reference to “truth, justice, and the American way” worked in there, but that should really be reserved for superheroes.

As we have pointed out here, the fact is that Sinclair didn’t have any immediate major matters before the FCC to worry about. This all might be a “clearing of the decks” before some deal in the works is announced that will require the blessing of FCC Chair Brendan Carr, doing his best impersonation of Marlon Brando from “The Godfather.” We certainly won’t be surprised if that turns out to be the case here.

UPDATE: After we originally published this column, Nexstar followed Sinclair’s lead and announced they too were returning “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to their ABC stations.

Even though the second-largest operator of ABC affiliates took a little longer to arrive at their decision— it was only because they too were exercising their first amendment rights to broadcast whatever they want—or not, as the case might have been. Apparently, they concluded that their little 6-plus billion dollar deal to acquire rival TEGNA, isn’t really that much at risk (at least for the moment) of getting approved, because there was absolutely, positively zero outside influence on their decisions.

They may have considered the wisdom from the actor Scott Glenn, who said it so well playing Captain Bart Mancuso in “The Hunt for Red October:"

“The hard part about playing chicken is knowin’ when to flinch."

Ah, we found the blender! Here’s hoping you enjoy your weekend as much as we plan to.

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