FCC orders early license review for ABC stations following Jimmy Kimmel joke

FCC Chair Brendan Carr sent a letter to Disney on April 28, 2026, directing all eight ABC owned-and-operated television stations to file for early broadcast license renewal within 30 days, by May 28, 2026. The stations are licensed by the FCC under the Communications Act of 1934 to serve specific local markets in the public interest. Disney's eight stations were not due for renewal until 2028 or later. Bloomberg reported that the order at the agency.

The order came two days after President Trump publicly attacked ABC host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke Kimmel told during a mock White House Correspondents' Dinner sketch. Kimmel called Melania Trump an "expectant widow," a comment Melania Trump responded to on X by calling it "hateful and violent" and urging ABC to "take a stand." Trump posted on Truth Social that Kimmel "should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC."

Kimmel responded on his show the following Monday, defending the joke as a "light roast" and saying it was "not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination." ABC did not pull the episode.

Carr publicly stated the early review order was triggered not by the Kimmel sketch but by a year-old FCC investigation into Disney's DEI practices, which the agency characterized as potential "unlawful discrimination" under the Communications Act of 1934. Carr said Disney had not been sufficiently responsive to the investigation's document requests.

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the commission's only Democrat, rejected that framing. She called it "the most egregious action this FCC has taken in violation of the First Amendment to date." Media law experts widely characterized the action as against a media company whose host criticized the president.

Broadcast television licenses are the central mechanism by which the federal government regulates over-the-air TV. Under the Communications Act and the , the FCC can refuse to renew a license if a station fails to operate in the "public interest, convenience, and necessity." The FCC's history includes rare revocations for technical violations or fraud, but never for the content of a talk show host's jokes.

Disney's eight stations include WABC-TV in New York, KABC-TV in Los Angeles, and WLS-TV in Chicago. Together they reach tens of millions of viewers. Losing them would effectively end ABC's ability to function as a broadcast network.

Carr's use of a DEI investigation as the legal hook for the license review is significant. The Trump administration has directed multiple regulatory agencies to interpret DEI programs as potential civil rights violations. Using the Communications Act's anti-discrimination provision to target Disney's internal personnel policies, rather than the content of its broadcasts, is a novel regulatory theory. Media law experts told that Disney would likely win in court if the FCC tried to revoke licenses on those grounds, but the legal process could drag on for years.

Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro, who took over from Bob Iger on March 18, 2026, said in a statement that 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." Disney said it is "confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment." Disney indicated it plans to challenge the action.

The First Amendment limits government retaliation against protected speech, including political satire and late-night comedy. But broadcast television occupies a legally unique position: because stations use the public airwaves under federal license, the FCC has more regulatory authority over broadcasters than over cable TV, streaming, or print media. The the FCC's authority to regulate broadcast content in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978), but courts have since narrowed that holding.

Carr signaled that NBC could face similar review, expanding the potential threat to the broader broadcast television industry. The FCC action fits a pattern of Trump administration pressure on media companies. The FCC had previously investigated ABC's stations in connection with a settlement ABC News reached with Trump over a defamation lawsuit related to a 2024 broadcast. that the ABC license order created significant uncertainty for all broadcast licensees about whether content or company policy could trigger regulatory action.