Disney Lays Down Terms for Kimmel’s Comeback

Jimmy Kimmel’s future on late-night TV is up in the air, and Disney is right in the middle of it.

People familiar with the talks say that Kimmel met with Disney executives, including CEO Bob Iger and entertainment chief Dana Walden, last week. They’ve been going back and forth over the weekend and are expected to meet again soon.

Disney owns ABC, which airs Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and they’ve also been talking to local TV groups like Nexstar and Sinclair about what happens if the show comes back.

Disney wants Kimmel back, but there’s a catch. Sources say Iger and Walden told him he needs to cut back on the political jokes.

Kimmel, though, doesn’t want to back down. He doesn’t want to apologize or be censored, and he’s worried about what happens to the 200 people who work on the show. He also doesn’t want, as one person close to him put it, “to give Trump a scalp” says Bloomberg’s report.

The drama got bigger when Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns the most ABC affiliates in the country, announced it would stop showing Kimmel’s show after his remarks about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination. ABC then paused production.

Sinclair’s Vice Chairman Jason Smith said in a statement, “Mr. Kimmel’s remarks were inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country. We believe broadcasters have a responsibility to educate and elevate respectful, constructive dialogue in our communities.”

He also added, “This incident highlights the critical need for the FCC to take immediate regulatory action to address control held over local broadcasters by the big national networks.”

Some critics say this is just censorship dressed up as a business decision. Donald Trump has a different take. He claimed the real reason behind the suspension might be simple: ratings.

And there’s some data to back that up. Back in 2015, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was pulling in around 2.4 million viewers a night. Today, that number has dropped to about 1.6 million—a decline of 37 percent. The fall is even worse among adults aged 25 to 54, a key group for advertisers. That audience went from nearly a million in 2015 to only 261,000 this year, a stunning 72 percent drop.

The suspension has also sparked a backlash against Disney itself. On social media, fans angry about the show being pulled started canceling their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions. Hashtags like #CancelDisney and #CancelDisneyPlus spread quickly.

One user wrote, “Just canceled my Disney+ and Hulu subscription because ABC caved to Trump’s and Carr’s fascism.” Another posted, “Disney bent at the knee and canceled Kimmel. Maybe it’s time for Democrats and Liberals to cancel Disney?”

What happens next could shape not only Kimmel’s career but also the legacies of Bob Iger and Dana Walden. For now, everything comes down to whether Kimmel and Disney can actually find some common ground, or if the late-night host will walk away instead.

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