The FCC is reportedly filing paperwork this afternoon that will challenge Disney's licenses for the eight ABC stations it owns. This early-renewal move by the FCC is in response to ABC's late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's "joke" about First Lady Melania Trump have a "glow of an expectant widow."
Breaking: The Trump-aligned FCC is planning to file paperwork as early as this afternoon that will challenge Disney's eight licenses for its eight ABC stations. This early-renewal move will be a major escalation by @BrendanCarrFCC. https://t.co/WWpAVTXLM9
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) April 28, 2026
Here's more from Variety:
The FCC is gearing up to launch a formal review of the broadcast licenses granted to Disney’s eight owned ABC stations over complaints about Jimmy Kimmel‘s joke about Melania Trump looking like an “expectant widow,” coming days before a gunman crashed into the White House Correspondents’ Dinner with the apparent intent to try to assassinate President Trump, according to a report.
The FCC, headed by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, “is moving toward a review of Disney’s broadcast licenses, according to people familiar with the matter, a maneuver that would up the pressure on the ABC owner as it faces fierce scrutiny from the administration — again — over a late night monologue,” per a report by Semafor.
In the past, FCC Chair Brendan Carr has sent letters to Disney CEO Bob Iger about DEI practices and affiliate negotiations.
This will undoubtedly raise the concerns of free speech issues like it did in September, when the FCC criticized Kimmel and ABC after Kimmel lied to his audience about who killed conservative leader and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Kimmel unequivocally said the killer was MAGA, despite the fact that the suspect, Tyler Robinson, held Leftist views and was dating a transgender individual.
But remember, Disney summarily fired actress Gina Carano several years ago for something she posted on social media. Carano filed a lawsuit, saying, "The truth is I was being hunted down from everything I posted to every post I liked because I was not in line with the acceptable narrative of the time," Carano reminded. "My words were consistently twisted to demonize & dehumanize me as an alt right wing extremist. It was a bullying smear campaign aimed at silencing, destroying & making an example out of me."
Disney claimed that Carano's social media were "denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”
Despite that, Disney had no problem with Mandalorian actor Pedro Pascal's social media posts, which included an image of Jews behind barbed wires in 1940s Germany, laid over an image of children in cages in America. The post was captioned "This is America."
And in 2018, ABC canceled Roseanne Barr for a social media post attacking Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett. "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show," ABC said in a statement at the time.
Yet few of the people who will be whining about the FCC's move to pressure Disney to remove Kimmel from the air had anything to say about these firings. In fact, many of them cheered for the termination of Carano and Roseanne based solely on their political views.