The FCC is reportedly gearing up to launch a formal review of the broadcast licenses granted to Disney’s eight owned ABC stations — coming after a MAGA uproar over Jimmy Kimmel‘s joke about Melania Trump looking like an “expectant widow,” comments he made just days before a gunman crashed into the White House Correspondents’ Dinner with the apparent intent of trying to assassinate President Trump.

The FCC, headed by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, “is moving toward a review of Disney’s broadcast licenses, according to people familiar with the matter, a maneuver that would up the pressure on the ABC owner as it faces fierce scrutiny from the administration — again — over a late night monologue,” per a report by Semafor. The FCC may not choose to not initiate an early license review of the ABC-owned stations, according to the report. The FCC “will claim the license review stems from an ongoing probe into Disney’s DEI practices, not the Kimmel controversy,” CNN reported.

Carr has on several occasions threatened to use the FCC’s regulatory authority to revoke licenses of TV broadcasters that air programming that he finds objectionable — including Kimmel’s on-air comments last September about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

The FCC chairman earlier this month suggested ABC could lose its broadcast TV licenses over what he characterized as Disney’s illegal DEI programs. “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 said in an interview on Fox News.
https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/trump-fcc-review-abc-broadcast-licenses-jimmy-kimmel-melania-joke-1236732208/