The Federal Communications Commission ordered a review of Disney’s broadcast licenses as the ABC owner faces backlash from the Trump administration over Jimmy Kimmel’s controversial monologue.
The FCC, which is led by chairman Brendan Carr, said in a filing that the review was related to an investigation into ABC’s diversity and inclusion policies. The move comes in the middle of a blow up between President Trump and ABC’s late night host, Jimmy Kimmel, which prompted the president to call for his ouster.
A rep for Disney told The Post: “We have received the Federal Communications Commission’s order initiating an accelerated review of the licenses held by ABC’s owned television stations. 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.”
“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,” the company added. “Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate.”
The FCC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
It is difficult for the government to take away stations’ rights to broadcast. It must make a convincing case that the stations have shown a pattern of violating rules and regulations.
If the FCC decides to block the renewal of ABC’s station licenses, the Disney-owned network could try to stop the agency in the courts – which could tie up the network in an expensive, long legal battle.
ABC owns eight of the more than 200 local stations that carry its programming across the country in major markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
President Trump said on Monday that the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” should be fired for remarks he made prior to a shooting at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Kimmel had mocked the annual event — where it has become customary for a comedian to roast the president — on his show on Thursday night, just days before the shooting.
In his monologue, Kimmel said: “Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
The first lady slammed Kimmel, calling him a “coward” on X, in the days after the correspondents’ dinner.
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” she wrote on Monday.
Kimmel repeated his tasteless joke verbatim in his Monday night monologue, explaining that when he said the first lady had “a glow like an expectant widow,” he was referring to the difference in ages of the first lady and her husband, and that it was not a “call to assassination.”
This is not the first time Kimmel has been in the hot seat over his monologue.
Last September, Kimmel was taken off the air for a week following backlash from affiliates in the wake of his comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk following his assassination.
The week-long suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” prompted widespread boycotts of Disney, with liberals accusing it of violating the First Amendment.
Kimmel refused to apologize when he returned to the air on Sept. 23, but said: “It was never my intention to make light of a murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”
But President Trump fumed about ABC’s decision to give him his show back.
“I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back,” he wrote in a Truth Social post at the time.
“The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there.”
Carr noted recently that the FCC has a number of investigations into a host of broadcasters, including NBC, ABC, PBS and National Public Radio.
