The Federal Communications Commission ordered an early review of ABC’s broadcast licenses on Tuesday, stepping up pressure on the network a day after President Trump called for Jimmy Kimmel’s firing. The agency said the move is part of its ongoing probe into Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
ABC owns eight TV stations, including WABC-TV in New York and KABC-TV in Los Angeles, making the review potentially significant for one of the country’s largest broadcast groups. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has also said the agency earlier this week ordered another broadcaster, Bridge News, to file early license renewal applications for its TV stations.
The review comes out of a broader FCC inquiry launched in March 2025 into whether Disney’s DEI policies violated federal anti-discrimination rules. The agency has accused ABC of using race-based hiring practices and of restricting corporate fellowships to selected demographic groups, claims the company has rejected.
Disney said it has a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules. A company spokesperson said Disney is confident the record shows its continued qualifications as a licensee under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and that it is prepared to make that case through the appropriate legal channels.
The timing of the action is drawing close scrutiny because it came immediately after Trump’s public demand that Kimmel be fired. Katie Fallow called the move a way to pressure Disney and ABC to change programming and get them to fire Jimmy Kimmel, and she described the step as highly suspect. Blair Levin said the timing is strong evidence that the motive for the early renewal process relates to the president’s call to fire Kimmel, not an ABC employment action.
Carr has tied the current review to complaints he says stretch back more than a year, saying that in March of last year he wrote to then-Disney CEO Robert Iger about what he called evidence or allegations of invidious DEI discrimination and racially segregated spaces inside the company. The legal road ahead still appears difficult for the FCC, and the question now is less whether the agency can increase the pressure than how far it can push before courts pull it back.
