The Federal Communications Commission issued an order Tuesday directing Disney’s eight owned-and-operated television stations to file their broadcast license renewals ahead of schedule.
The move is tied to a yearlong investigation into Disney’s DEI practices, a source with knowledge of the matter said, but it got fast-tracked after ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about first lady Melania Trump.
“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,” the agency said.
Disney owns and operates TV stations in markets such as Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. The licenses were not due to come up for renewal until 2028 at the earliest, according to the source. The stations have 30 days to comply with the FCC’s order.
In a statement, a Disney spokesperson confirmed the company had received the FCC’s order. “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,” they said.
“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 spokesperson added.
NBC News has reached out to all eight stations for comment. Semafor reported earlier Tuesday that the FCC was preparing to review the Disney broadcast licenses.
Disney also owns local stations in Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Raleigh-Durham and Fresno.
The White House on Tuesday intensified pressure on ABC to fire Kimmel over his description of the first lady as an “expectant widow” in a parody of the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on last Thursday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Two days later, a gunman opened fire outside the correspondents' association event in Washington.
The Trumps and top administration officials were rushed out of the Washington Hilton ballroom. The suspect faces three charges, including attempting to assassinate the president of the United States.
“I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale,” the president wrote in a social media post on Monday. “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Kimmel, a regular subject of the president’s ire, addressed the backlash at the top of his show on Monday, framing his “widow” comment as a joke about the 23-year age difference between the Trumps.
“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination,” Kimmel said, adding that he believes the country should reject “hateful and violent rhetoric.”
In a statement, FCC commissioner Anna M. Gomez, the lone Democratic appointee on the three-person panel, blasted the agency’s push for early broadcast license renewals.
“This is unprecedented, unlawful, and going nowhere. It is a political stunt and it won’t stick. Companies should challenge it head-on. The First Amendment is on their side.”
Free Press, a progressive advocacy group, accused FCC Chairman Brendan Carr of “using his position of power to silence dissent at the president’s beck and call. This extraordinary and unconstitutional attack on the media is nothing more than another favor to the most fragile president in U.S. history.”
In response to a request for comment on the outcry from Free Press and other First Amendment advocates, an FCC spokesperson said: “As the agency decision makes clear, the early renewal order is based on a long running FCC investigation into Disney’s DEI conduct, not any speech.”
The furor around Kimmel comes seven months after ABC briefly suspended his talk show amid a controversy over his comments about the political motivations of the man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah.
“The MAGA gang [is] 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 said on his Sept. 15 show.
Investigators had not yet released details about the suspect’s possible motive at the time. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said the suspect grew up in a conservative household in Utah but later became influenced by “leftist ideology.”
Carr at the time accused Kimmel of “the sickest conduct imaginable” and suggested the FCC could revoke ABC affiliates’ licenses as punishment.
Carr, who was appointed to chair the FCC by Trump, hinted earlier this year that his agency might conduct early license reviews. “The Communications Act authorizes the FCC to call in licenses for early renewal,” Carr wrote in a March 14 post on X.
