FCC Chair Denies Pressuring Networks To Suspend Jimmy Kimmel

Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr denies ever threatening to revoke anyone’s broadcasting licenses if they didn’t deal with Jimmy Kimmel.

Carr was widely accused of pressuring ABC, Disney and the companies that control local television stations into firing Kimmel for comments the comedian made in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, but while speaking at Concordia Summit 2025 in New York on Monday, the regulator maintained he had not used intimidation tactics “in any way, shape or form.”

“The reality is, there’s a lot of Democrats out there that are engaged in a campaign of projection and distortion,” he said. “And distortion is they’re completely misrepresenting the work of the FCC and what we’ve been doing.”

It’s true that Carr did not explicitly threaten to pull any broadcasting licenses while appearing on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast last week. He did, however, say that companies had to “take action” on Kimmel or there would be “additional work for the FCC ahead.”

As he told Johnson that networks could do things “the easy way or the hard way,” many assumed he was reminding networks about the FCC’s authority to regulate who has access to the airwaves through broadcast licensing.

“Look, there’s calls for Kimmel to be fired,” Carr said at the time. “You could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this. Again, the FCC is going to have remedies that we can look at. We may ultimately be called to be a judge on that.”

For many, it seemed like no coincidence that just hours later local television station owner Nexstar announced its networks would be pulling Kimmel’s show off its networks “for the foreseeable future.” That decision was closely followed by ABC’s move to suspend the program “indefinitely.”

The chain of events prompted widespread outrage, with many accusing the government of wielding its power to silence its critics in a direct attack on the First Amendment.

Following intense public pressure to reverse course, Disney announced Kimmel would be returning to the air after just five days in limbo.

“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” a statement from the company said. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”