Report: FCC Mulling Early ABC License Review Amid Calls for Kimmel’s Firing

FCC chairman Brendan Carr thus far has been atypically quiet on the matter, but multiple reports say his U.S. government agency is taking steps toward launching an early review of ABC’s broadcast licenses—amid but not necessarily sparked by President Donald Trump‘s demand that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel be fired “immediately.”

“The Federal Communications Commission is moving toward a review of Disney’s broadcast licenses, according to people familiar with the matter,” the Semafor news platform reported Tuesday morning. Conducting a review so far ahead of the licenses’ October 2028 renewal date “would up the pressure on the ABC owner as it faces fierce scrutiny from the [Trump] administration — again — over a late night monologue,” the site noted.

CNN’s Brian Stelter backed up Semafor’s report, adding that the call for an early review of ABC’s eight licenses could come as early as Tuesday afternoon. The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, echoed Semafor’s note that any review would actually stem from FCC questions about DEI hiring practices, and that its arrival on the heels of the latest Kimmel controversy is purely “coincidental.”

Carr just weeks ago asserted, “The Communications Act authorizes the FCC to call in licenses for early renewal.” LateNighter has reached out to the FCC for comment on Semafor’s reporting.

Kimmel is drawing said scrutiny after delivering on last Thursday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! a send-up of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, where as a roast master-style host he remarked that first lady Melania Trump had the “glow” of “an expectant widow.”

Days later, an armed man tried to breach the actual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but was apprehended on the scene well before he reached the ballroom where the Trumps and other administration VIPs were seated. (Cole Allen, 31, has since been charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump, which carries a sentence of up to life in prison, and two other, related crimes.)

The first lady was first to clock Kimmel’s almost-prescient “widow” comment, saying on X Monday, “People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.” She in turn urged ABC to “take a stand,” asking: “How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”

President Trump himself echoed his missus, saying that Kimmel’s alleged “call to violence” was “far beyond the pale,” and as such, the late-night host “should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”

Kimmel in his Monday-night JKL monologue said the “expectant widow” quip “obviously was a joke about their age difference, and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together.

“It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am,” the 58-year-old host added. “It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination. And they know that.”