ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel twice in twelve months for going too far – and then kept him anyway.
Late night comedy decided half of America was not worth entertaining, and the bills are finally coming due.
Disney's president weighed in on Kimmel's future and it wasn't what the Left hoped.
How Trump and the FCC Turned Jimmy Kimmel Into ABC's Biggest Liability
In April 2026, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr ordered ABC's eight owned-and-operated broadcast stations to file early license renewals within 30 days.
The order landed 24 hours after President Trump demanded on Truth Social that Kimmel be "immediately fired" following a monologue joke about First Lady Melania Trump.
Karoline Leavitt called Kimmel out from the White House briefing room.
Melania Trump posted that Kimmel "deepens the political sickness in America."
Carr had made the same move in September 2025, pressuring ABC after Kimmel made comments about the suspected killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk – and ABC suspended the show.
The man who lectures America about free speech got pulled off the air by his own network twice after crossing the line with his “comedy.”
The Real Reason Jimmy Kimmel Live Is Not Getting Renewed
The ratings collapse in late night did not start with Kimmel – it started when late night decided its job was politics.
Late night went from Johnny Carson entertaining tens of millions every night to Jimmy Kimmel lecturing half the country about Trump, and that half stopped watching.
Conan O'Brien said what late night had devolved into at the Oxford Union earlier this year: some comics, he said, go the route of "I'm going to just say 'F Trump' all the time – or that's their comedy."
Elon Musk saw the clip and said what half the country already knew: "They stopped being funny long ago."
Late night stopped entertaining America and became group therapy for liberals who lost an election – and the advertisers who needed a broad audience stopped paying for a partisan one.
CBS cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2025 for exactly this reason.
The show was number one in late night when CBS killed it.
Didn't matter.
The Late Show cost approximately $100 million a year to produce, and the advertising revenue to justify that cost had vanished.
NBC's entire late night lineup – The Tonight Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Saturday Night Live – loses more than $100 million a year combined when you subtract earnings from cost.
NBC cut costs by eliminating the band on Seth Meyers' show and reducing Fallon to four nights a week.
CBS cancelled Colbert outright.
Networks give three-year deals to talent they plan to keep. Kimmel has been on one-year extensions – the kind you offer when you are not sure you can justify the cost.
At Bloomberg's Screentime conference, Disney president and chief creative officer Dana Walden confirmed the same math applies to Kimmel.
Jimmy Kimmel Live's YouTube and social content, Walden said, are "not a lucrative opportunity for a very premium talk show." She added that Disney is still working through "what does Jimmy want, what's the right thing to do, and what's the right thing for our business" – and that she is "honoring a deep partnership."
Partners in Hollywood get honoring speeches right before they get shown the door.
ABC denied a Page Six report in September that Kimmel's contract "is not getting extended," calling talk of the show's future purely speculative – but Walden's words were not a denial. She never said the show is being renewed.
Colbert had one problem: the show cost too much.
Kimmel has three – the show costs too much, every monologue triggers a federal license review, and Disney has already suspended him twice to manage the pressure.
The last time the FCC revoked a broadcast license over a station's programming was 1969.
You do not have to lose a license for the threat to work.
Disney and ABC filed a lawsuit against the FCC in August 2026, calling the review a retaliatory campaign against their programming. A license review still costs millions in legal fees and compliance costs – on top of a show that already runs $100 million a year and generates digital revenue Walden called not lucrative.
Disney is not going to keep paying that price.
The reports that ABC demanded significant budget cuts to continue Jimmy Kimmel Live were not a negotiating tactic – that was Disney doing the math out loud, hoping Kimmel would walk away on his own.
He didn't.
So Walden went on camera, said she loves him and values the friendship, and left the question unanswered.
In Hollywood, that is how you announce things are coming to an end.
Sources:
- "Jimmy Kimmel May Be Running Out of Late Nights," Daily Wire, September 2026.
- Borys Kit and Mia Galuppo, "Jimmy Kimmel Extends ABC Deal 2026-27," Hollywood Reporter, December 2025.
- "FCC Orders Review of Disney Owned Broadcast Licenses; Trump Criticisms of Jimmy Kimmel," Fox 11 Online, April 28, 2026.
- Brooklynn Robinson, "Disney President Makes Ominous Comments About Jimmy Kimmel's Future," The Western Journal, October 4, 2026.
