The Federal Communications Commission is expected to issue an order Tuesday directing Disney’s eight owned-and-operated television stations to file their broadcast license renewals ahead of schedule, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
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The source described the move as “unprecedented” and directly tied to Jimmy Kimmel’s comments about first lady Melania Trump on an episode of his ABC late-night show last week. The stations have 30 days to comply with the FCC’s order.
Disney owns and operates television stations in key markets such as Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. The station licenses were not due to come up for renewal until 2028 at the earliest, according to the source.
ABC and Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FCC will be probing whether the TV stations are complying with the agency’s public interest standards, according to the source. Disney also owns local stations in Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Raleigh-Durham and Fresno.
The White House on Tuesday intensified pressure on ABC to Kimmel over his description of the first lady as an “expectant widow” on last Thursday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Two days later, a gunman opened fire outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner 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 Monday. “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Kimmel addressed the backlash at the top of his show 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.”
The criticism of Kimmel comes seven months after ABC briefly suspended his talk show amid a firestorm over his comments about the political motivations of the man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah.