I guess the issue for ABC is why suspend Kimmel and not Sunny Hosting or Ana Navarro on The View
Affiliates.
A few weeks ago, when the Colbert cancellation was in the news, Kimmel made the comment that late night shows aren't profitable on their own but are subsidized by affiliate fees, the money that each station in the network pays said network for the right to carry the programming. A portion of ABC's affiliate fee revenue is earmarked toward Kimmel's show.
Fast forward to this week. Now, keep in mind, that by and large, five companies control the vast majority of local ABC affiliates: Sinclair, Nexstar, Scripps, Gray and Hearst. Nexstar and Sinclair both announced they were no longer going to carry Kimmel. I am not familiar with the terms of the network agreement, but if a huge chunk of your affiliate base stops purchasing a show, it's no longer feasible to keep distributing it. Not only does it mean less affiliate fee money (possibly) but it (certainly) means advertisers are going to see much smaller ratings and pay much less for commercials. Ironically, the advertisers will likely pull their programming anyway, a problem the left created itself: ever since Sandra Fluke in 2012, a lot of advertising agencies won't touch political content.
As for why not The View... well... the affiliates haven't cancelled it yet. My best guess is that they get enough hate-watching to keep the ad rates viable. Plus having an all-female, partially of color panel helps the DEI score, something white, male Kimmel can't do.
