Nexstar Media Group, the largest owner of local broadcast television stations, says it is weighing the return of ABC’s late night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to its network-affiliated stations in key parts of the country.

In a statement on Wednesday, a Nexstar spokesperson said the broadcaster is “continuing to evalute the status” of Kimmel’s show and has held “productive discussions” with the Walt Disney Company, the parent of ABC.

Those conversations include a “focus on ensuring the program reflects and respects the diverse interests of the communities we serve,” Nexstar said.

It was not clear from the statement if those talks also involved other programs like “The View” or “Good Morning America.” Late night talk shows are typically considered to be news programs, as are roundtable discussion and talk shows.

For now, Kimmel’s show will continue to be replaced by extended local news broadcasts on Nexstar-owned ABC affiliates, impacting viewers in places like Syracuse, Binghamton, Erie, Harrisburg, Knoxville, Terre Haute and Salt Lake City.

Nexstar owns or operates between two dozen and three dozen full-power, primary ABC affiliates. It also operates ABC-affiliated TV stations owned that are licensed to other companies, and distributes ABC programming on digital broadcast sub-channels of some stations that are affiliated with another network.

Kimmel referenced the programming blackout during his monologue on Tuesday — the first since ABC made the decision to put his show on hiatus last week.

“We are still on the air in most of the country, except, ironically, from Washington, D.C., where we have been preempted,” Kimmel said. “After almost 23 years on the air, we’re suddenly not being broadcast in 20 percent of the country, which is not a situation we relish.”

The Washington, D.C. ABC affiliate is owned by Sinclair, Inc., which joined Nexstar in affirming their intention to pre-empt his show last week. The decision was justified by Kimmel’s monologue two days earlier, during which he criticized President Donald Trump’s answer to a question about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and wrongly implied that Kirk’s alleged murderer was politically aligned with Trump supporters.

Nexstar and Sinclair’s decision ultimately provoked ABC to put Kimmel’s show on hiatus, replacing it with repeats of “Celebrity Family Feud.” The decision was influenced by the broadcaster’s decision to pull the program.

The announcement came hours after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr disparaged ABC during an interview with a conservative podcaster, during which he inferred that the federal broadcast regulator would ABC’s business transactions difficult in the future.

Carr also expressed a desire to have the owners of ABC affiliates pre-empt Kimmel’s program — something that Nexstar and Sinclair ultimately did.

Both broadcasters have business-related transactions that require FCC approval — Sinclair is in the process of acquiring and selling licensed TV stations, and Nexstar is trying to buy peer broadcaster TEGNA. A spokesperson for Nexstar said the company’s decision to pre-empt the program was not tied to its proposed acquisition of TEGNA, a deal that would further require the FCC to modify its ownership rules.

Nexstar and Sinclair pay broadcast networks, including ABC, for the rights to redistribute their entertainment, news and sports. As part of the affiliate arrangement, broadcaster like Nexstar and Sinclair are allowed to pre-empt network programming under certain conditions — typically, breaking news and severe weather — on condition that the shows are broadcast at a later hour or on a different station in the same area. In rare cases, local TV stations are allowed to substitute their own programming in place of lower-rated network shows.

In this instance, Nexstar and Sinclair continue to pay ABC for the rights to Kimmel’s show, despite not airing it on their stations. Neither broadcaster is airing the show at a later hour, or allowing another station in the same market to broadcast it, which amounts to a programming blackout rather than a pre-emption.

In affected areas, viewers who are deprived of Kimmel’s show on their local ABC affiliates can watch the entire program on Disney-owned streaming service Hulu. Clips are also available on YouTube.

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Read more:

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• Nexstar confirms plan to acquire TEGNA for $6.2 billion
• Law firm files FCC complaint against TV station over Kimmel monologue
• Trump urges FCC to pull TV station licenses over negative coverage
• Broadcasters who criticized Jimmy Kimmel have deals pending before FCC
• Nexstar says no to Jimmy Kimmel, joining Sinclair in boycott