Jimmy Kimmel Live! barely survived September 2025, when the outrage machine called for Kimmel’s head over a monologue joke he made in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder. The joke (an observation, really) was not about Kirk or his assassination, it was about MAGA Republicans scrambling to point their fingers at Democrat rhetoric as the motive behind the shooting.
This time, following Kimmel’s viral “expectant widow’ joke toward first lady Melania Trump, such an uproar has not happened — not beyond social media, anyway. Or if it has, it has yet to be raised to Disney’s highest levels by the folks who matter most: station owners and advertisers.
Last fall, FCC chair Brendan Carr amplified social media backlash to Kimmel’s quip on conservative pundit Benny Johnson’s podcast. Almost immediately, ABC station owners began calling Disney senior management with the same take(s).
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel had said during his monologue.
In the moment, it was unclear which way suspected gunman Tyler Robinson leaned politically — both sides of the aisle were in hot potato mode to not claim him as sharing their ideologies. As it turns out, Robinson is a liberal, especially on the subject of trans rights. Kimmel’s supposition at the time was incorrect.
The next wave of calls to Disney came from advertisers. Then major affiliate conglomerates Nexstar and Sinclair threatened to not carry Jimmy Kimmel Live! without an apology and a major donation to a conservative charity — they first went to the media and then to Disney.
Representatives for Nexstar and Sinclair did not immediately respond to our requests for comment on the current situation.
On September 17, 2025, less than two days after Kimmel’s controversial monologue, Dana Walden and Disney’s then-CEO Bob Iger made the joint decision to preempt ABC’s late night program. It was Walden who called Kimmel personally with the news. Kimmel was benched for a few nights and then returned to the airwaves, including those run by Nexstar and Sinclair. No apology was issued.
Similar stuff (calls from MAGA Republicans for Kimmel to be fired) hit a similar fan (X, fka Twitter) yesterday, days after a Kimmel joke about the first lady “glowing” over the knowledge her husband isn’t long for this world. The joke was made on Thursday night, 48 hours before the White House Correspondents Dinner, in which suspected shooter Cole Allen attempted to breach the gala’s awards show, gun in hand. He was subdued before getting there; Allen is charged with attempted to assassinate the President.
“Look at Melania, so beautiful,” Kimmel addressed his fake WHCD’s fake audience. “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
Kimmel’s joke was about the President’s seemingly declining health and the perception that Melania Trump does not like her husband. It was made days before an attempt on the President’s life (the third, if you’re keeping count). Still, the MAGA gang ganged up on Kimmel online. On Monday, Melania Trump called for ABC to “take a stand.”
“Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC,” Donald Trump posted to his Truth Social platform shortly after.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! aired last night as per usual, and though Kimmel acknowledged the backlash to the joke, he offered no apology — just the same explanation I had written hours earlier. There has been no direct consequences because there have been no angry calls from Disney’s business partners — not a single peep, as one of our sources put it. Hopefully that is because the affiliates and advertisers realize there is no basis for the blowback and not just because they don’t have new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro’s phone number. (OK, so really the channel owners would first go to Disney head of affiliate relations Susi D’Ambra-Coplan.)
FCC chairman Brendan Carr testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government at the Rayburn House Office Building on May 21, 2025.
John McDonnell/Getty Images
There may be some indirect pressure mounting behind the scenes, however. Trump’s Federal Communications Commission czar on Tuesday informed Disney that he would be reviewing ABC’s broadcast license two-to-five years ahead of the previously scheduled checkup. What a coincidence!
“The FCC determines that calling in Disney’s ABC licenses for early renewal, at this time… is essential within the meaning of agency regulations,” a legal letter sent to Disney (obtained by The Hollywood Reporter) reads.
Disney-owned ABC stations must now file for their license renewals within the next 30 days. In response, ABC said we’ll see you in court, basically.
The FCC has two open investigations into Disney and ABC, one into the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices, which it opened last year, and another into The View over an appearance by Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico over its equal opportunity rule.
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