Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show is returning to ABC on Tuesday night after a tense standoff from remarks he made about the Trump administration’s response to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. But about a quarter of the ABC stations in the United States won’t be airing it.

Nexstar, a major owner of local ABC stations, said Tuesday morning that it would preempt Kimmel’s show indefinitely. Sinclair, another owner of local affiliates, said the same Monday evening, hours after Disney announced “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would return. Nexstar said it would replace the comedy show with news programming, pending further “discussions with ABC.”

Those decisions set up a high-stakes impasse between Disney and the TV station groups that transmit its shows to millions of households across t

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