Jimmy Kimmel Live! He barely survived September 2025, when the Rage Machine called in Kimmel’s head over a joke monologue he made in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder. The joke (actually a note) wasn’t about Kirk or his assassination, it was about MAGA Republicans scrambling to point the finger at Democratic rhetoric as the motivation behind the shootings.
This time, in the wake of Kimmel’s “pregnant widow” joke toward First Lady Melania Trump, there was no such uproar — not outside of social media, anyway. Or if it does, it has yet to be elevated to Disney’s heights by the people who matter most: station owners and advertisers.
Last fall, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr amplified social media backlash over Kimmel’s mockery of conservative pundit Bennie Johnson’s radio show. Almost immediately, ABC owners began contacting Disney upper management with the same clip(s).
“We reached new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to paint this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of their own and doing everything they can to score political points out of him,” Kimmel said during his monologue.
At that moment, it was unclear which way suspected gunman Tyler Robinson leaned politically — both sides were in hot potato status for not claiming to share their ideologies. As it turns out, Robinson is a liberal, especially on the subject of transgender rights. Kimmel’s assumption at the time was incorrect.
The next wave of calls to Disney came from advertisers. Then major affiliated conglomerates Nexstar and Sinclair threatened not to continue Jimmy Kimmel Live! Without an apology and a large donation to a conservative charity – they went first 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 then-Disney CEO Bob Iger made a joint decision to pre-empt the ABC late-night program. It was Walden who personally called Kimmel 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 things (calls from MAGA Republicans to fire Kimmel) hit a similar fan (X, fka Twitter) yesterday, days after Kimmel joked about the First Lady “glowing” over knowing her husband isn’t long for this world. The joke was made Thursday night, 48 hours before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, that suspected shooter Cole Allen tried to infiltrate the awards ceremony, gun in hand. He was subdued before getting there. Allen is accused of attempting to assassinate the president.
“Look at Melania, so beautiful,” Kimmel told his faux WHCD audience. “Mrs. Trump, you have the glow of a pregnant widow.”
Kimmel’s joke was about the president’s apparently deteriorating health and the perception that Melania Trump doesn’t love her husband. It was done days before the attempted assassination of the president (the third, if you’re counting). However, the MAGA gang has gathered on Kimmel’s website. On Monday, Melania Trump called on ABC to “take a stand.”
“Jimmy Kimmel should be fired immediately by Disney and ABC,” Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform shortly after.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! It aired last night as usual, and although Kimmel acknowledged the backlash to the joke, he offered no apology — just the same explanation I wrote hours earlier. There were no immediate consequences because there were no angry calls from Disney’s major business partners — not even a peep, one of our sources said. Hopefully, it’s because affiliates and advertisers realize there’s no basis for negative reaction and not just because they don’t have new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro’s phone number. (Well, the channel owners will first turn to Disney’s head of corporate relations, Susie D’Ambra-Coplan.)
However, there may be some indirect pressures mounting behind the scenes. Trump’s FCC czar told Disney on Tuesday that he would review ABC’s broadcast license two to five years before a previously scheduled inspection. What a coincidence!
“The FCC determines that requesting Disney’s ABC licenses for early renewal, at this time…is necessary within the meaning of the agency’s regulations,” reads a legal letter sent to Disney (and obtained Hollywood Reporter).
Disney-owned ABC stations must now submit applications to renew their licenses within the next 30 days. In response, ABC said we’ll basically see you in court.
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 company’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices. The view Due to the emergence of Texas Senate candidate James Talarico on the equal opportunity rule.
