Credit: ABCLast Tuesday, Disney caved to external pressure and the fear of cancellations and returned late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to its ABC stations. It would take until Friday, when Sinclair Broadcasting and Nexstar restored Kimmel to their ABC affiliates, before he would be on nationwide, but he is back and does not appear to be going anywhere.
However, a new report is revealing that Disney does not believe the Kimmel saga is over and is expecting retaliation from the Trump Administration. According to Bloomberg, Disney met with its legal team before restoring Kimmel. In those discussions, Disney executives were assured that Disney would win a court battle if the Trump Administration threatened ABC’s broadcasting license.
Disney had reason to be concerned about retaliation from the Trump Administration. FCC Chair Brendan Carr warned affiliates that aired Kimmel that they risked their licenses. Meanwhile, Trump directly threatened Disney, writing on Truth Social, “I think we’re going to test out ABC on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 million. This one sounds even more lucrative.”
Despite those warnings, many experts believe it would be incredibly difficult and costly to strip ABC of its broadcasting license. Former ABC Television president Preston Padden told Bloomberg News, “Under our Constitution and the Communications Act, you cannot lose your FCC license for broadcasting something the president doesn’t like.”
While that may be true, it doesn’t mean the Trump Administration won’t try to strip ABC and wrap Disney in a protracted legal battle.
The Kimmel Saga
Kimmel’s issues started nearly two weeks ago, when Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr told a podcast that broadcasters should “stop airing Kimmel’s show,” after his remarks about Kirk. Carr made a not-so-veiled threat to broadcasters, saying, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Moments after Carr made his remarks, Nexstar, the largest station group owner in the country, announced that it was pulling Kimmel from its ABC-affiliated networks. According to Rolling Stone, executives at Disney, ABC, and its affiliated stations gathered for a meeting after Nexstar’s decision, where many of the executives in attendance did not believe that Kimmel had said anything wrong.
Despite that, Disney caved to the pressure from Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcasting, the largest owner of ABC affiliates in the country, to pull Kimmel from the air. Sinclair said that it will not return Kimmel to its stations until “formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability,” and until Kimmel makes a direct apology to the Kirk Family, and for the network makes a significant donation to the family and Turning Point U.S.A.
However, after less than a week off the air, Disney, facing massive protests and cancellations, restored Kimmel, but he stayed off the air on Sinclair and Nexstar stations. That is, until Friday, when he was restored to both groups’ stations without any concessions from Disney or Kimmel.
What do you think of the Trump Administration punishing ABC for putting Jimmy Kimmel back on the air? Let us know in the comments.