Isabelle Cashe
Two days after Jimmy Kimmel's September 15 monologue mentioned Charlie Kirk's death and the president's response, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr expressed his disproval of Kimmel's comments and issued a thinly veiled threat: "We can do this the easy way or the hard way … These companies can find ways to change conduct to take action on Kimmel or, you know, there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."1
The comments, made during Carr's appearance on a conservative podcast, had immediate repercussions. Hours later, Nexstar and Sinclair—two of the companies connecting ABC to local broadcasters/affiliates—said it would no longer broadcast Kimmel's show on its stations.2 Minutes after that, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live would be "pre-empted indefinitely."3
To many, these events seemed implausible. Apart from media scholars and net neutrality activists, most of us do not think about the FCC since its role in American media regulation has been largely spared from public discourse. However, with Carr assuming a far more active and public role as Chair, it is important to understand what power the FCC holds and how that power is wielded.
The Federal Communications Commission, established by the Communications Act of 1934, is the federal agency tasked with approving local affiliates/broadcasters "broadcasting licenses."4 Built under the presumption of limited electronic broadcast spectrum, the 1934 Act created a system wherein broadcasters compete for a finite number of broadcasting spots and licenses.5 While the FCC has consistently shown a preference for incumbent license holders over competitors (licenses must be renewed every three years but now within a maximum of eight), the Telecommunications Act of 1996 established the current FCC standard for license renewal. Under the 1996 Act, the FCC grants licenses to incumbent stations if the station, over the course of the license term, "has 'served the public interest, convenience, and necessity;' that there have been no 'serious violations ... of this Act or the rules and regulations of the Commission;' and that the licensee has not engaged in any 'other violations . . . which, taken together, would constitute a pattern of abuse.'"6 Carr referenced this language itself during the aforementioned podcast appearance: "They [the affiliates] have a license granted by us at the FCC that comes with an obligation to operate in the public interest."7
Previously, threats of licensed revocation or denied renewals have been primarily directed towards "indecent" or "obscene" broadcasts, or specific sponsored or commercial content.8 Indeed, the type of content-based, political regulation Carr's threat invokes finds precedent only in President Nixon's unsuccessful attempt in the 1970s to have the FCC sanction broadcasts criticizing him and his administration.9 In the words of former FCC official Giggi Sohn, "What he [Carr] has done here - using the bully pulpit to essentially intimidate a major network into canceling one of its hours - there's nothing that comes close in the history of the Federal Communications Commission."10
On September 22, Disney announced that ABC would put Kimmel back on the air after receiving widespread criticism for acquiescing to Carr and the Trump administration's demands.11 As of this blog post's publication, Kimmel's late-night show is back and reporting higher viewership than before its cancellation.12 Nexstar, which had continued pre-empting the show while it conducted its own evaluation, confirmed on September 26 that it would resume broadcasting Kimmel.13
It remains to be seen if Carr's vision of a bolder, publicly expressive FCC will follow through with its intimation and implement real legal consequences for broadcasters (fines, revoked or denied licenses, etc.). For now, however, Nexstar, Sinclair, and ABC's immediate actions after these comments suggest that media companies may not be up to the task of challenging and overstepping the FCC.
[1] Alex Leeds Matthew & Brian Stelter, Timeline: Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension and planned return to ABC, CNN Business (Sep. 22, 2025), https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/18/business/timeline-jimmy-kimmel-suspension-vis; David Folkenflik, Jimmy Kimmel's suspension shows power of FCC's Brendan Carr, NPR (Sep. 19, 2025), https://www.npr.org/2025/09/19/nx-s1-5546764/fcc-brendan-carr-kimmel-trump-free-speech.
[2] Id; Louis Jacobson & Samantha Putterman, After Jimmy Kimmel’s show was suspended, a key question is: Does the FCC have the power to regulate speech?, PBS News (Sep. 19, 2025), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/after-jimmy-kimmels-show-was-suspended-a-key-question-is-does-the-fcc-have-the-power-to-regulate-speech.
[3] Matthew & Stelter, supra note 1.
[4] National Telecommunications & Info. Admin., The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), U.S. Dep't of Com., https://www.ntia.gov/book-page/federal-communications-commission-fcc (last visited Oct. 14, 2025); Christopher B. Fager, FCC License Renewal Policy and the Right to Broadcast, 52 B.U. L. Rev. 94, 94-95 (1972).
[5] Id at 94.
[6] Lili Levi, Not with a Bang but a Whimper: Broadcast License Renewal and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 29 Conn. L. Rev. 243, 245 (1996) (quoting the Telecommunications Act of 1996 § 204(a)(1)).
[7] Jacobson & Putterman, supra note 2.
[8] Id; Matthew A. Klopp, Constitutional Malfunction: Does the FCC's Authority to Revoke a Broadcaster’s License Violate the First Amendment?, 13 Commlaw Conspectus 309, 310 (2005).
[9] Owen M. Fiss, The Censorship of Television, 93 NW. U. L. Rev. 1215, 1218 (1999).
[10] Folkenflik, supra note 1.
[11] Matthew & Stelter, supra note 1.
[12] David Bauder, Kimmel is back on ABC to big ratings, but some affiliates still refuse to air his show, AP (Sep. 25, 2025), https://apnews.com/article/jimmy-kimmel-returns-suspension-charlie-kirk-d6421f17ebef4735753495b4f4997c8f.
[13] Id; Chloe Veltman, Sinclair and Nexstar restore 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' to their local TV stations, NPR (Sep. 26, 2025), https://www.npr.org/2025/09/26/nx-s1-5554473/jimmy-kimmel-sinclair-disney-abc-preempt-restore-nexstar.