Exclusive / FCC challenges ABC broadcast licenses

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday said it is reviewing ABC’s broadcast licenses, upping the pressure on the network’s owner, Disney, which is again under White House fire over a late-night monologue.

Those ABC licenses were not slated for license review until 2028 at the earliest. The FCC said in a filing that Disney’s corporate diversity policies may have violated anti-discrimination rules.

But the move, which Semafor first reported earlier Tuesday, comes a day after President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump demanded that the broadcaster fire Jimmy Kimmel, the host of ABC’s eponymous late-night show, over a monologue he made two days before a gunman allegedly attempted to assassinate the president and top administration officials at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, in which he said the first lady looked like “an expectant widow.”

“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 in a statement. “We are confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels.”

The FCC licenses ABC’s TV stations across the country to broadcast their programming over publicly owned airwaves. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has threatened Disney’s licenses before as recently as this month, when he criticized the company’s diversity programs. The FCC licenses ABC’s TV stations across the country to broadcast their programming over publicly owned airwaves.

“If the evidence does in fact play out and shows that they were engaged in race- and gender-based discrimination, that’s a very serious issue at the FCC, that could fundamentally go to their character qualifications to even hold a license,” Carr told Fox in April.

Disney shares slipped around 1% on the news in Tuesday trading.

Representatives for Disney and the FCC did not respond to requests for comment. A person familiar with the FCC’s thinking said the timing of a review wasn’t directly linked to the Kimmel monologue.