INSIDE THINKING

Disney Shareholders Demand Reasons Behind Kimmel Suspension

Investor coalition threatens legal action for Disney board records on the late-night host’s benching.

A coalition of Disney investors has demanded board records explaining why ABC sidelined Jimmy Kimmel’s show under government pressure.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! was pulled off air on Sept. 17 following Kimmel’s MAGA-focused monologue about the alleged killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

In a letter coordinated by the Democracy Defenders Fund, lawyers representing shareholders, which includes the American Federation of Teachers and Reporters Without Borders, say they’re probing whether Disney directors “did not properly discharge their fiduciary duties” when benching the show.

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According to a report by Semafor, the request seeks financial analyses of the suspension, board communications, and any policies for handling “politically sensitive programming.”

The group is threatening to sue if it doesn’t get them within five business days. It also wants copies of affiliate agreements with Nexstar and Sinclair, whose blackout threats preceded the suspension, the outlet said.

The groups—represented by a legal team that includes Roberta Kaplan, who won writer E. Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse and defamation cases against Donald Trump—warned they would sue in Delaware, Disney’s legal home, to obtain “books and records” if the company refuses.

Delaware law gives shareholders limited access to board-level materials for investigating alleged wrongdoing, noted Semafor.

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Disney is likely to take the demands seriously as investor ire has a price tag. Disney’s stock slipped 3.3 percent during the controversy, per Business Insider, while leading Hollywood figures warned of talent backlash if Disney bowed to political heat.

Kimmel was taken off the air amid a backlash by MAGA and Donald Trump-appointed FFC chair Brendan Carr, who claimed Kimmel had played into a “narrative” that Kirk’s suspected shooter was a “MAGA or Republican motivated person.”

Carr appeared to dangle regulatory trouble for ABC unless affiliates took Kimmel off the air—a stance blasted by civil-liberties groups and questioned by lawmakers.

House Democrats pressed Carr over remarks that “there’s going to be additional work for the FCC” if stations didn’t “take action… on Kimmel,” per a congressional letter.

Sinclair and Nexstar had demanded further mea culpas. Sinclair even scheduled a Kirk tribute in Kimmel’s slot and urged “additional action” by regulators.

However, Kimmel never explicitly called the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, “MAGA” or Republican. He actually said the “MAGA gang” tried to paint the killer as “anything other than one of them.”

Nexstar, which operates ABC-affiliated stations, said it would not air Kimmel’s show “for the foreseeable future” over “comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk” on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University.

In a statement on Monday, Disney—ABC’s parent company—said it had benched Kimmel to “avoid further inflaming a tense situation” and because some remarks were “ill-timed and thus insensitive,” before restoring the show after “thoughtful conversations.”

Following public protests, Kimmel returned to the airwaves on Tuesday with his biggest regularly scheduled audience in a decade—6.26 million viewers—despite continued preemptions by Nexstar and Sinclair in big markets. The affiliates’ blocks kept the 57-year-old’s show off roughly a quarter of ABC homes even after the reinstatement.

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The comeback episode’s monologue also drew massive social views.

On his return, Kimmel said, “it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” while defending satire and free expression, and mocking Trump. He also poked fun at Trump’s own poor ratings.

Carr has since insisted government pressure played “no role” in ABC’s decision, while Vice President JD Vance was skewered for claiming Carr’s apparent threats had been a “joke.”

“Pulling Jimmy Kimmel off the air was a mistake: one that betrayed principles of free speech and American democracy,” said Democracy Defenders Fund executive chair Norm Eisen.

“We are seeking answers about all of this, including whether Disney bowed down to illegal government demands in order to facilitate approval of the Nexstar-Tegna merger currently before the FCC.”

The Daily Beast has contacted Disney for comment.

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