Disney executives were in crisis mode on Thursday, hunkered down with their star talent Jimmy Kimmel to try to figure out a path to deescalate the firestorm ignited by his remarks on Monday about Charlie Kirk’s murderer — and the intense reaction to Kimmel’s removal on Wednesday.
An extraordinary set of pressures were being brought to bear as Kimmel’s allies — comedians, politicians and media personalities — called the public to action against what Marc Maron categorized as “government censorship” while conservatives escalated their attacks, and the government added fuel to the fire by trying to draw “The View” into the FCC’s purview. Meanwhile, Disney was silent as the tomb.
Behind closed doors, the company spent Thursday focused on finding a way to get Kimmel back on the air with a degree of urgency, a Disney insider told TheWrap. The insider added that while Kimmel was preparing to address the backlash to his Monday comments on Wednesday’s show, Disney felt what he wanted to say “would have continued to enrage” the right. The two sides couldn’t come to an agreement on how to address the uproar in a way that brought the temperature down, and TheWrap was told that the situation became “unsafe” as Disney employees were fielding death threats.
With the clock ticking, the plug was pulled.
Bringing the temperature down is now the primary focus, and Disney is in discussions with Kimmel on finding a meaningful way to address what’s happening, this insider said. Those discussions are likely to involve Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment co-chairwoman Dana Walden, both of whom have a close relationship with Kimmel — the late night host spent half an hour huddled with Walden at Disney’s Emmys party on Sunday.
Whether Kimmel’s potential return includes an apology, as broadcaster Sinclair has demanded, is unclear. Kimmel’s bit from Monday made light of the conservative reaction to Kirk’s shooter’s politics, not Kirk or his death, but has now been twisted and misconstrued by conservative media to the point that the perception is now that he made insensitive remarks about the slain activist.
Sinclair has argued that Kimmel’s suspension is “not enough” and demanded that he issue an apology to the Kirk family and make a “meaningful personal donation” to them and Turning Point USA before they put him back on their ABC stations, which account for about 7.7% of U.S. households.
Trump, meanwhile, was emboldened by Disney’s decision on Thursday and went so far as to say networks shouldn’t be allowed to air programs that speak overwhelmingly negatively about him.
“When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump ‒ that’s all they do,” he told reporters on Air Force One. “They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that.”
As Disney and Kimmel work to find a path to get him back on the air, the question becomes when or if it might happen. Iger is then faced with the choice of either standing up to these affiliates and backing his late night host’s return – possibly without acquiescing to their conditions – or paying out Kimmel’s contract and scrapping “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” altogether, which would further inflame public and creative tensions with one of the most powerful entertainment companies in the world.
Former ABC Daytime executive Brian Frons told TheWrap that the situation poses a unique challenge for Disney.
“This is not just a simple show issue,” he said. “This is the fate of the network, the nature of news moderation, the nature of the network-affiliate relationships. And, of course, the undertone of all of it, the relationship with the Trump administration and the FCC.”
While acknowledging that there’s always a path to negotiate, Frons said the odds of Kimmel returning to ABC’s airwaves ultimately come down to two questions: What is Kimmel willing to do and how much is Disney willing to swallow, especially given his current contract is set to expire in 2026.
“Even if you went to Sinclair and Nexstar and said, ‘Hey, Jimmy apologized, Jimmy wrote the check,’ now you fold in negotiation with the affiliates,” he added. “The next thing you’re going to do is, ‘OK, well, what’s going to happen when he goes back? How is he going to be controlled? Is this going to happen again? Because if it is, we’re going to pull him and we’re never going to bring him back.’ So that, to me, is the real impediment.”
Representatives for the FCC did not return TheWrap’s request for comment on this story. Disney declined to comment for this story. Kimmel’s rep did not respond to a request for comment. Sinclair didn’t return a request for comment.
Sinclair Broadcasting owns, operates or provides services to 178 television stations in 81 markets, while Nexstar — which also refused to air “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after his comments — owns more than 200 owned or partner stations in 116 U.S. markets reaching 220 million people. Out of those totals, Nexstar owns 23 ABC affiliate stations and partners with nine other stations, while Sinclair owns and operates 30 local ABC affiliates.
When looking solely at Nexstar and Sinclair’s full-power ABC affiliate stations that hold an FCC license, S&P Global estimates that they accounted for 12.4% and 7.7% of U.S. households, respectively. To put it simply, ABC is unlikely to put “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” back on the air without being able to broadcast through these stations.
Veteran comedy producer and former “Late Show With David Letterman” EP Robert Morton slammed the decision to pull Kimmel from the airwaves, telling TheWrap it’s all about Trump’s ego and “a guy that can’t take a joke.” He added that Iger should “rise to the occasion” and defend Kimmel, touting the executive’s track record of doing so with talent and producers.
“When we launched the Letterman show, we didn’t have 100% clearance on the stations. It took us a few years to get 100% clearance. So, if I was ABC, I’d call their bluff,” he said. “You’re going to drop the ABC lineup? Go ahead and do it, because if you drop Kimmel, we’re not going to give you the other programming. It’s a violation of our affiliate deal. I would imagine you can’t just say ‘I’m not going to air a show’ and then expect the network to supply you with all the other programming. They have contracts.”
But how much does Disney need “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”? Like all of late night, the show’s ratings and ad spend have been slipping over the last decade. The show averaged 1.77 million viewers in the second quarter of 2025, coming in as the second most-watched late night show behind recently canceled “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” which averaged 2.42 million views, according to Nielsen data from July. That’s down from the show’s 2024 second-quarter average of 1.9 million viewers.
It also ranks as the No. 10 program for ABC by ad spend, accounting for $67.4 million in 2025 through Tuesday, per iSpot. That figure is well below the $89.2 million in ad spend the show raked in for ABC in 2022, when it was ranked as the No. 11 program. Although it should be noted that Kimmel was due to film a week’s worth of shows in Brooklyn in October, part of a lucrative advertising pull for ABC, according to an individual with knowledge.
There is also the public image cost of letting Kimmel go. On Thursday, “Lost” co-creator Damon Lindelof said if Disney does not reinstate Kimmel, he won’t work with the studio again. He’s surely not the last to take such a stand, and a chorus of comedians backed Kimmel as well with “WTF” podcast host Maron saying, “If you have any concern or belief in real freedom or the Constitution or free speech, this is it. This is the deciding moment.”
Morton contended that Kimmel would be better off not apologizing, noting the late night landscape and the host is on “borrowed time” anyway.
“I don’t think it does anything to help Jimmy by apologizing,” Morton said. “His worth and his value is that much greater and his base audience will respect him that much more if he doesn’t apologize. I think it’s the end of free speech and the end of comedy when he does apologize. You never heard Johnny Carson apologize.”
A late night insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity slammed Disney’s move as “cowardly” and Carr’s comments as “despicable.”
“My hope is that the backlash is too loud for them to ignore,” the insider said. “The one benefit to how transparent this all is, is that the outrage is extended way beyond people who love Kimmel. Everyone seems to understand the greater implications of this.”
Sharon Waxman and Loree Seitz contributed reporting to this story.
