Overview

• FCC chair Brendan Carr publicly urged broadcasters to “take action” over Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue and warned of further FCC involvement.
• ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air after major affiliates including Nexstar and Sinclair preempted the segment, leaving the show dark since Wednesday.
• Democratic commissioner Anna M. Gomez and civil‑liberties advocates condemned the pressure as a First Amendment threat, while Senator Ted Cruz warned conservatives about the precedent for censorship.
• Legal experts say revoking or denying station licenses for content is unlikely and would face years of litigation, noting no major broadcaster has lost a license for content in decades.
• Reporting highlights the FCC’s transactional leverage tied to merger and license reviews, citing the Paramount–Skydance approval following a $16 million payment toward Trump’s future library and pending station‑group deals involving Nexstar and Sinclair.