Jimmy Kimmel: Disney pulled late night host as pressure built on multiple fronts

For Bob Iger and his leadership team at Disney and ABC, time was running out.

Jimmy Kimmel, one of the company’s biggest stars, was preparing to tape the Wednesday edition of his late-night show in Hollywood at 4.30pm. And he had written an opening monologue that would address a cascading political firestorm head-on.

Conservatives had accused Kimmel of mischaracterizing the politics of the man accused of killing right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. The chair of the Federal Communications Commission had just warned ABC of serious consequences, telling the network that “we can do this the easy or the hard way.” And a Texas-based owner of many ABC affiliates was preparing to pull Kimmel from its stations indefinitely.

Iger, Disney’s CEO, and Dana Walden, his head of television, were also hear