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Bob Iger, who recently stepped down as CEO of Disney, is defending the company’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel back in September over his comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Publicly addressing the debacle
for the the first time in an interview with the Financial Times, Iger denied the widespread speculation that Disney pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to capitulate to the Trump administration.
“That was not the case,” Iger said. “We thought it was in bad taste.” The retired executive also explained that Kimmel was asked to apologize for his remarks: “We just wanted him to acknowledge that it was an ill-timed and probably inappropriate comment.”
A right-wing activist and ally to Donald Trump, Kirk was shot and killed at age 31 on Sept. 10, 2025 while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University. Five days later, on-air during his late-night ABC show, Kimmel said that “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.” In response, Trump’s FCC chairman Brendan Carr to threatened regulatory pressure: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said on a podcast. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Nexstar and Sinclair, companies that own a combined one-quarter of ABC’s affiliate channels, swiftly vowed that they would not air Kimmel’s show, and ABC followed suit, suspending production on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” for five days.
