Disney is staying in the Jimmy Kimmel business. After falling for a bad-faith conservative cancel culture campaign in September, briefly sidelining the late-night host in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Disney has extended Kimmel’s contract through May 2027. Per Bloomberg, which first reported on the extension, his contract was initially set to expire in May 2026.
The fracas between Kimmel and Disney began when FCC chair Brendan Carr more or less instructed affiliate groups to preempt Kimmel’s show after Carr misunderstood and then played right into Kimmel’s criticism of the conservative reaction to Kirk’s murder. Politically minded affiliates followed suit. Nexstar Media Group, which is hoping Carr’s FCC will approve its $6.2 billion acquisition of its competitor Tenga, and Sinclair Broadcast Group, best known for poisoning public television with hyper-conservative “must run” segments, pulled the show. Both held out longer than ABC, which reinstated Kimmel about a week after suspending him. Eventually, Kimmel returned to Nexstar and Sinclair affiliates as well.
To those who canceled their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions in protest of Disney’s knee-jerk decision-making, Mr. Kimmel owes you his gratitude. It turns out that mocking President Trump publicly and not caving to every empty threat is good for ratings—a message we hope NBC hears as the President pressures the FCC to go after Seth Meyers.
