The Federal Communications Commission ordered a review of Disney’s broadcast licenses for local ABC stations following a new spate of criticism from President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump about the network’s late-night comedy host Jimmy Kimmel.
The FCC released the order on Tuesday afternoon saying it would launch an early review of the licenses as part of the agency’s investigation into the stations for possible “unlawful discrimination.” FCC chairman Brendan Carr had previously warned Disney that he would examine the company’s practices around diversity, equity and inclusion.
The Trump administration has been sparring with Kimmel since last year, when the late-night comedian was temporarily taken off the air for remarks following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The White House has pummeled Kimmel for making a joke last week about the upcoming White House correspondents’ dinner.
Anna M. Gomez, the lone Democrat on the FCC, said the effort to bring in Disney’s licenses for an early review is illegal.
“This is unprecedented, unlawful, and going nowhere,” Gomez wrote in a statement. “It is a political stunt and it won’t stick. Companies should challenge it head-on. The First Amendment is on their side.”
Disney’s licenses were originally set to be renewed between 2028 and 2031.
The news of the review was first reported by Semafor and CNN. The FCC did not offer further comment beyond the order filed Tuesday.
In a statement, a Disney spokesperson confirmed that it received the FCC’s order and said the network is prepared to fight it.
“ABC and its stations have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with trusted news, emergency information, and public‑interest programming,” the spokesperson said. “We are confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels. Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate.”
Melania Trump on Monday called on ABC to punish Kimmel for the joke he made on a broadcast last week.
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” she said Monday. “His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.”
Trump also weighed in and called for Kimmel to be fired. “I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
On Thursday, Kimmel parodied the upcoming correspondents’ dinner and noted that Trump would be attending for the first time as president. “And of course, our first lady, Melania, is here,” Kimmel said, pretending to be the host. “Look at — so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
Kimmel’s jokes came two days before a gunman opened fire at the dinner in what federal law enforcement have alleged was an attempt to assassinate the president. On Monday night’s show, Kimmel responded to the criticism from the first family: He said his remark about the “expectant widow” was “a joke about their age difference. And the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together.”
“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” Kimmel said. “It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination. And they know that. I’ve been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence, in particular.”
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung on Monday posted on X calling Kimmel “a shit human being” and urging ABC to fire him.
Carr previously threatened Disney’s licenses after a joke Kimmel made in the aftermath of Kirk’s death. “We can do this the hard way or the easy way,” he said in a podcast interview. After some station owners took Kimmel’s show off their airwaves, Disney and ABC suspended the host for a week.
This rhetoric led to some pointed criticism from fellow Republicans. “What he said there is dangerous as hell,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) about Carr’s comments. “That’s right out of ‘Goodfellas.’ That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar. ‘God, nice bar you have here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.’”
In Kimmel’s Monday night monologue, he said the ordeal felt like “déjà vu.”
He offered some contrition to the first lady. “I am sorry that you and the president and everyone in that room on Saturday went through that. I really am,” Kimmel said. “Just because no one got killed doesn’t mean it wasn’t traumatic. It’s scary. And we should come together and be best.” (Be Best is the name of the first lady’s public awareness campaign about cyberbullying.)
The Walt Disney Co., ABC’s parent company, holds licenses for its eight owned-and-operated local broadcast stations — which includes some of the largest metropolitan areas in the country like WABC in New York, KABC in Los Angeles, WLS in Chicago and WPVI in Philadelphia.
While Carr has not weighed in on Kimmel’s conduct in recent days, he’s instead focused on Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, a focus of his ire since becoming chair last year.
In an excerpt from a podcast interview with former Trump administration official Katie Miller released on Tuesday, Carr said that he could review licenses early for companies promoting DEI.
“You have a license. The licenses come due every so often. You can accelerate when a license comes due and say, ‘Hey, we have significant concerns about how you’re conducting your operations. We want to review your license now and decide if you’re in the public interest,” Carr said. “I mean, ultimately whether we pull a license for a big broadcaster like that will be decided by their own conduct. I’d be surprised if we ultimately don’t go down the path of license revocation for some, but it will be up to them and their own conduct.”
Early reports of the FCC’s review spurred outrage from press advocates.
“The First Amendment and the FCC’s mandate do not permit the agency to use broadcast licenses as weapons to punish broadcasters for constitutionally protected content they air,” said Seth Stern, chief of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation. This is nothing but illegal jawboning intended to intimidate ABC into kissing the ring.”
Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said that the FCC has no authority to cancel broadcasters’ licenses because of their political viewpoints.
“But this isn’t just about the rights of Disney and ABC. President Trump is trying to consolidate control over what Americans see and hear on the radio, television and social media,” he said. “If he gets his way, we’ll have only government-aligned media organizations that broadcast only government-approved news and commentary. It would be difficult to imagine an outcome more corrosive to democracy or more offensive to the First Amendment.”
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