MAGA sent death threats to Disney employees after FCC chair's remark about Kimmel: report

A supporter of President Donald Trump in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021 (Image: Shutterstock)

ABC's decision to pull late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's show this week wasn't just due to fear of President Donald Trump's administration, but also of his supporters.

That's according to a Thursday article in CNN, which reported that network executives felt that suspending Kimmel was a "safety issue" for both Disney's employees and advertisers. When Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr told far-right podcast host Benny Johnson on Wednesday that he was considering revoking the broadcast licenses of local ABC stations that aired Kimmel's show — due to his Monday night monologue pummeling Trump for trying to "score political points" off of conservative activist Charlie Kirk's murder — Trump supporters reportedly took it upon themselves to bombard Disney employees with death threats.

One unnamed source that CNN described as a "veteran television news producer" who is not employed by ABC said that Carr's threat was likely taken extremely seriously by network executives.

"There is no more terrifying circumstance for a broadcast entity than the threat of an FCC fine, or worse, that the agency could move to revoke the stations’ broadcast licenses," the producer said.

"This isn’t just about ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live.’ It’s about all of ABC and all of the shows and all employees," another source reportedly close to the Kimmel decision told CNN.

Prior to ABC's announcement that it was "indefinitely" preempting Kimmel's show, the late-night comedian had reportedly prepared to deliver a blistering monologue on the Wednesday episode of his show directly addressing MAGA's backlash to his Monday monologue. But one source told CNN that Kimmel's monologue was "very hot," and that executives attempted to get him to soften it before the broadcast. Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden both reportedly made the decision to pull Kimmel's show off the air to protect the Disney brand from controversy.

"Everyone deeply values him and wants him to come back,” one CNN source said. “But he has to take down the temperature.”

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