--- title: FCC Orders a Review of ABC’s Broadcast Licenses Amid Trumps’ Kimmel Criticism description: The move has drawn alarm from free speech advocates and could lead to a legal battle with Disney, ABC’s parent company. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/04/28/fcc-review-abc-broadcast-licenses-kimmel-trump-disney/ author: Rebecca Schneid article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-04-28T20:11:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-28T22:14:00.244Z article:section: Politics og:title: FCC Orders a Review of ABC’s Broadcast Licenses Amid Trumps’ Kimmel Criticism og:description: The move has drawn alarm from free speech advocates and could lead to a legal battle with Disney, ABC’s parent company. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/04/28/fcc-review-abc-broadcast-licenses-kimmel-trump-disney/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta3031b95720445f8/69f11509063f5d739ccb2f6d/GettyImages-2268143998.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: GettyImages-2268143998.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: FCC Orders a Review of ABC’s Broadcast Licenses Amid Trumps’ Kimmel Criticism twitter:description: The move has drawn alarm from free speech advocates and could lead to a legal battle with Disney, ABC’s parent company. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta3031b95720445f8/69f11509063f5d739ccb2f6d/GettyImages-2268143998.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # FCC Orders a Review of ABC’s Broadcast Licenses Amid Trumps’ Kimmel Criticism > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: White House press secretary criticizes Jimmy Kimmel over 'widow' joke [Watch (HLS stream): White House press secretary criticizes Jimmy Kimmel over 'widow' joke](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/v26HtTUa.m3u8) (0:59)  _Published 2026-04-27. The move has drawn alarm from free speech advocates and could lead to a legal battle with Disney, ABC’s parent company._ by [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/) and [Connor Greene](https://time.com/author/connor-greene/) Apr 28, 2026 8:11 PM UTC by [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/) and [Connor Greene](https://time.com/author/connor-greene/) Apr 28, 2026 8:11 PM UTC Federal regulators are ordering a review of all of [ABC’s station licenses](https://time.com/7312097/trump-abc-nbc-media-threats/), a startling move that has drawn alarm from [free speech](https://time.com/7299965/trump-paramount-60-minutes-lawsuit-settlement/) advocates and could lead to a legal battle with Disney, ABC’s parent company. “Disney’s ABC is hereby directed to file license renewals for all of their licensed TV stations within 30 days — in other words, by May 28, 2026,” the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said in a [filing](https://www.fcc.gov/document/walt-disney-company-abc-and-tv-subsidiaries) Tuesday. Disney confirmed to TIME that it had received the FCC order “initiating an accelerated review” of ABC-owned television stations. “ABC and its stations have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with trusted news, emergency information, and public‑interest programming,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to TIME. “We are confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels. Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate.” The licenses in question were originally scheduled to be up for renewal between 2028 and 2031. The FCC indicated in its filing that the review was connected to an investigation the agency has been conducting into ABC’s diversity initiatives. But the move comes shortly after the White House, First Lady Melania Trump, and the President attacked late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, calling on ABC to fire him for a joke he made on his show _Jimmy Kimmel Live!_ last week. “Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” Kimmel said in a skit aired on Thursday, in which he pretended he was a comedian monologuing at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner. Two days later, at the actual correspondents’ dinner, an armed man—who law enforcement identified as [Cole Tomas Allen](https://time.com/article/2026/04/26/cole-tomas-allen-whca-shooting/)—allegedly charged a security checkpoint at the event venue and opened fire in an apparent attempt to reach and assassinate President Donald Trump. One law enforcement officer was injured, but the President and others in attendance at the event were unharmed. “Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” the First Lady wrote on [social media Monday](https://x.com/FLOTUS/status/2048769128513585618), calling on the ABC to “take a stand” against Kimmel. Trump followed with his own attack, saying Kimmel should be “immediately fired by Disney and ABC.” Kimmel defended his remark in the opening monologue of his show Monday evening while stressing his right to free speech. The comedian said the comment “obviously was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together … It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.” Kimmel went on to note that he’s been outspoken against gun violence in the past, as well as pointing to Trump’s own rhetoric. “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it,” Kimmel went on. “I also should point out Donald Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you and as am I. Because under the First Amendment, we have, as Americans, a right to free speech.” Free speech advocates have come to Kimmel’s defense and criticized the President and First Lady for calling for his firing. “In America, satire is not a crime. The right to mock, to challenge, and yes, to offend those in power, is foundational to democracy,” the Committee for the First Amendment, a free speech advocacy organization headed by the actress Jane Fonda, said in a statement first reported by [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jane-fonda-committee-first-amendment-responds-trump-jimmy-kimmel-abc-rcna342369). “From late-night television to political cartoons, comedy has long served as a powerful tool to expose hypocrisy, provoke debate, and drive accountability.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/28/fcc-review-abc-broadcast-licenses-kimmel-trump-disney/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/28/fcc-review-abc-broadcast-licenses-kimmel-trump-disney/"},"headline":"FCC Orders a Review of ABC’s Broadcast Licenses Amid Trumps’ Kimmel Criticism","datePublished":"2026-04-28T20:11:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-28T22:14:00.244Z","description":"The move has drawn alarm from free speech advocates and could lead to a legal battle with Disney, ABC’s parent company.","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/28/fcc-review-abc-broadcast-licenses-kimmel-trump-disney/","keywords":["Trump Administration","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta3031b95720445f8/69f11509063f5d739ccb2f6d/GettyImages-2268143998.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rebecca Schneid","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Connor Greene","jobTitle":"Editorial Fellow","url":"https://time.com/author/connor-greene/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta3031b95720445f8/69f11509063f5d739ccb2f6d/GettyImages-2268143998.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-2268143998.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Shelby Tauber—Bloomberg","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/trump-administration/","name":"Trump Administration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/28/fcc-review-abc-broadcast-licenses-kimmel-trump-disney/","name":"FCC Orders a Review of ABC’s Broadcast Licenses Amid Trumps’ Kimmel Criticism"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"White House press secretary criticizes Jimmy Kimmel over 'widow' joke","description":"The move has drawn alarm from free speech advocates and could lead to a legal battle with Disney, ABC’s parent company.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/v26HtTUa/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-04-27T20:42:43.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/v26HtTUa.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/28/fcc-review-abc-broadcast-licenses-kimmel-trump-disney/","duration":"PT59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/28/fcc-review-abc-broadcast-licenses-kimmel-trump-disney/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```