FCC Orders Early Review Of License Renewals Of Disney ABC Stations

UPDATED: The FCC on Tuesday ordered The Walt Disney Co. to submit to early renewals of its owned and operated stations.

In a filing, the FCC’s Media Bureau said, “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. Therefore, Disney’s ABC is hereby directed to file license renewals for all of their licensed TV stations within 30 days — in other words, by May 28, 2026.”

The short notice indicated that the review is related to a prior investigation over the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices. But it also comes amid Donald Trump’s attacks on Jimmy Kimmel and his calls for him to be fired. Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chairman of the FCC, has repeatedly raised the specter of license renewals and chided broadcasters about their public interest obligations.

The licenses otherwise will come for renewal starting in 2028.

Federal rules, the filing asserts, “provide that whenever the FCC regards an application for a renewal of a license as essential to the proper conduct of an investigation, the FCC has the authority to call the broadcaster’s licenses in for early renewal.” Such a move “both allows the FCC to conduct its ongoing investigation and enables the FCC to ensure that the broadcaster has been meeting its public interest obligations more broadly.”

The most recent round of scrutiny for ABC follows a seismic episode last fall, when Kimmel’s late-night show was suspended “indefinitely” by Disney in the wake of mounting backlash to the host’s monologue. In the 2025 instance, it was an aside about Trump supporters’ reaction to the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. In the more recent backlash, Kimmel came under fire for a joke he made about First Lady Melania Trump looking like an “expectant widow.” The quip was made the day before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner ended with a gunman’s attempt on Trump’s life.

On Monday night, Kimmel pushed back on the criticism, saying the joke was not a “call to assassination.” He described the situation as “déjà vu” given previous demands by Trump and his supporters that Kimmel be fired.

The next step will be for ABC to file the applications to renew the licenses. The agency can renew, or it can determine that there is a “substantial material question of fact,” and designate a hearing. The licenses would go to an administrative law judge and, if there is a decision to deny a license, the network could appeal to the D.C. circuit.

Andrew Schwartzman, senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, said, “The process will take many years, during which time [ABC stations] will continue to operate. If this doesn’t fall apart, this is going to be going on long after Carr is gone.”

Schwartzman said that the early renewal order is something the FCc has not invoked “in decades, and certainly not against a major broadcaster.”

He doubted the FCC’s argument, that ABC’s DEI policies may have violated employment discrimination rules. “It is preposterous,” Schwartzman said, “It is just intimidating the broadcasters to make them sweat.”

Schwartzman, Gigi Sohn, Protect Democracy and Tech Freedom are among those representing a group of former FCC chairs and commissioners who filed a petition to repeal the agency’s news distortion policy. Carr has invoked the policy as he has pursued various inquiries into program content, but the former chairs and commissioners say are “naked attempts to suppress coverage the Administration views as unfavorable.”

Earlier on Tuesday, they filed a petition with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to compel the FCC to take a position on the petition.

Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who served under Barack Obama, said in a statement, “The FCC’s failure to act is no accident. As long as the News Distortion Policy remains, the FCC Chair could continue to misuse it to police perceived media bias, discourage broadcasters from covering controversial stories, and punish outlets that air content the Trump administration dislikes.”

Former FCC Chairman Mark Fowler, who served under Ronald Reagan, said, “Until it is repealed, we will not have a free press. Every day the agency delays is another day the FCC can use this policy in bad faith. The press that uses air and electrons should be as free as the press that uses paper and ink.”

PREVIOUSLY: The FCC reportedly is preparing to direct ABC-owned stations to file early renewals of their licenses, a move that quickly drew criticism from the commission’s sole Democrat.

The FCC under chairman Brendan Carr already has been investigating Disney over its diversity, equity and inclusion programs. But the network has been under pressure from the Trump administration to fire Jimmy Kimmel, following a joke last week he made about First Lady Melania Trump being an “expectant widow.” That joke came days before the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, forcing Secret Service to rush Trump, the First Lady and Vice President JD Vance from the dais.

Amid the criticism of Kimmel on Tuesday, Katie Miller, wife of Trump deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, posted a clip of Carr on one of her previous podcasts where he talked of seeking an early license renewal process for ABC.

In the clip, Carr talked not of Jimmy Kimmel but of Disney being “pretty bad” on DEI and that it would raise “character questions about the company long term.”

“You can accelerate when a license becomes due and say, ‘We have significant concerns about you conducting your operations. We want to review your license now.”

An FCC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Disney has not commented, but it likely will set up a legal battle, something that can stretch for years.

Anna Gomez, the only Democrat on the commission, said in a statement about the early license renewal, “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.”

Station licenses do not come up for renewal until 2028. Disney has not yet commented.

Kimmel was doing an “alternative” Correspondents’ Dinner roast, and quipped, “Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

Kimmel did not apologize for his joke on Monday’s show.

Kimmel said, “This was Thursday. There was no big reaction to it, until this morning, when I greeted the day facing yet another Twitter vomit storm and a call to fire me from our First Lady, Melania Trump, saying I should be fired because of a joke I made again five nights ago. It was a pretend roast,” he said. “It 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. It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination, and they know that. I’ve been very vocal for many years, speaking out against gun violence, but I understand that the First Lady had a stressful experience over the weekend, and probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house.”

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said, “Jimmy Kimmel is a shit human being for: #1. Making a disgusting joke about assassinating the President #2. Doubling down on that joke instead of doing the decent thing by apologizing ABC needs to fire him immediately and he should be shunned for the rest of his life.”

Semafor and NBC News reported that the agency was preparing to seek the early renewals.