Disney-owned ABC is not fucking around with Jimmy Kimmel this time and is, according to CNN’s Brian Stelter in his daily newsletter, warning stations that they will enforce their contracts and drop the hammer on any MAGA-owned affiliate chain that preempts the nightly show the way oligarchic cartels Nexstar and Sinclair did back when Kimmel mocked convicted felon President Trump’s reaction to Charlie Kirk’s assassination as “not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a 4 year-old mourns a goldfish.” Funny enough that was after Kimmel aired a clip of Trump being asked by a reporter about Kirk and then the fat idiot almost immediately drifted into the then-ongoing East Wing demolition to make way for the now-stalled ballroom build.
“My sources at ABC and Disney are well aware that the MAGA media attacks against Kimmel are not in good faith,” Stelter writes. Keep in mind the global megacorporation has a new CEO in charge than they did back in September as Stelter notes in the story. He also zooms in on the dispositive difference for Nexstar, who on top of ABC cracking the whip, have to deal with a California federal judge currently blocking their acquisition of TEGNA. Preempting Kimmel, which they did not do on Monday with that case still ongoing would have been a really stupid, really shortsighted move.
After his newsletter went out Stelter tweeted the following:
The FCC is preparing to "call in all of the TV station licenses for Disney/ABC for early renewal," a source familiar with the matter said, confirming Semafor's scoop from earlier this morning. It will be viewed as government retaliation for keeping Kimmel's show on the air.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) April 28, 2026
Continued Stelter downthread: “The eight ABC licenses in question aren’t due to be renewed for years. So the early renewal order would trigger a lengthy hearing process, with many opportunities for stations to beat back the Trump admin’s pressure. But stations have to be willing to defend themselves. The FCC hadn’t taken this type of early-renewal action in decades… although, strangely enough, the agency just filed an early-renewal order yesterday against a small station license holder called Bridge News. [FCC incel Brendan] Carr must know that if he sends Disney these early-renewal papers, the action will be widely condemned. But my source familiar with the matter said the FCC will assert that the license review stems from an ongoing FCC probe into Disney’s DEI practices. I’ll be refreshing the FCC website today to see if the orders come through. ABC has many legal defenses, and its licenses are likely not in any real jeopardy. But it calls to mind the title of Malcolm Feeley’s 1979 book about the legal system: ‘The Process Is the Punishment.'”