The Federal Communications Commission is seeking early renewal for all eight station licenses owned by ABC related to the broadcaster’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
While the license review pertains to the Disney-owned media company’s alleged discrimination, the federal agency’s decision comes shortly after President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump called for late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired following a controversial monologue on his show.
Disney and ABC have so far refused to take Kimmel off the air, unlike last fall, when the host caught flak for making misleading comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination last fall. At the time, Kimmel’s show was briefly suspended following pressure from broadcast station owners Nexstar and Sinclair.
The FCC, led by Chairman Brendan Carr, is now setting its sights on ABC amid the Trump-Kimmel drama. The agency said “additional actions are appropriate at this time” after investigating Disney’s ABC stations for possible violations of the “Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC’s rules, including the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination.”
“The FCC determines that calling in Disney’s ABC licenses for early renewal, at this time, under the Communications Act’s public interest standard is essential within the meaning of agency regulations,” FCC official David Brown wrote in a filing. “Therefore, Disney’s ABC is hereby directed to file license renewals for all of their licensed TV stations within 30 days—in other words, by May 28, 2026.”
The move is unprecedented but not unsurprising, as Carr and Trump have repeatedly threatened to go after broadcast licenses over what they call misleading coverage of the administration or, more recently, a left-leaning comedian’s divisive comments amid a rise in political violence.
Last Thursday, Kimmel joked about Melania Trump looking like an “expectant widow.” That statement aired two nights before the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where a suspected shooter allegedly attempted to assassinate Trump and target other administration officials before he was apprehended.
In his first late-night episode since the shooting, Kimmel defended his joke, claiming it was intended to be about the presidential couple’s age gap. Trump turns 80 on June 14, and his wife is 56 as of Sunday.
“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” Kimmel said late Monday. “It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination.”
Apart from claiming the joke was misunderstood, Kimmel called out the “hateful and violent rhetoric” today but suggested Trump was at fault for much of it.
Disney responded to the FCC’s early license renewal notice shortly after it became public.
“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 entertainment company said in part. “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 FCC’s sole commissioner nominated by a Democratic president, Anna Gomez, is not on board with the agency’s action.
“This is unprecedented, unlawful, and going nowhere,” Gomez posted on X as reports about the incoming order were published earlier Tuesday. “This political stunt won’t stick. Companies should challenge it head-on. The First Amendment is on their side.”
JIMMY KIMMEL ADDRESSES MELANIA TRUMP’S SOCIAL MEDIA POST ABOUT HIS ‘CORROSIVE’ COMEDY SKIT
However, Carr maintains the move is well within the commission’s authority.
“You can accelerate when a license comes to you and say, ‘Hey, we have significant concerns about how you’re conducting your operations,’” Carr said in a clip of a forthcoming episode on The Katie Miller Podcast. “‘We want to review your license now and decide if you’re in the public interest. If we find that a broadcaster hasn’t been doing that, then the statute requires us to issue a hearing designation order,” he added, noting the process takes multiple months.