ABC
While Jimmy Kimmel wasn’t off the air for long, his brief suspension from ABC still impacted Disney’s bottom line all the same. According to reports, over 1.7 million canceled their subscriptions to Disney+ in the wake of Kimmel’s suspension.
According to reporter Marisa Kabas, Disney saw more than 1.7 million total paid streaming cancelations during the period of September 17 through September 23. This period coincided with Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air by ABC following pressure from FCC chair Brendan Carr.
Over 1.7 million people canceled their Disney+ subscriptions in the wake of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension
Kabas’ reporting indicates that that number of cancelations was 436% above baseline subscriber churn.
Kimmel was suspended by ABC due to comments he made after the murder of Charlie Kirk, as he accused Donald Trump’s supporters of desperately trying to portray the alleged shooter, Tyler James Robinson, as affiliated with anything other than “MAGA”.
“The MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.
Kimmel wound up returning to the air on Tuesday, September 23, following a swell of public outrage regarding his suspension, with many seeing it as an attack on free speech.
During his monologue on his return to the airwaves on September 23, Kimmel got emotional a handful of times, including when praising the response of Kirk’s widow Erika.
“If you believe in the teachings of Jesus as I do, there it was. That’s it, a selfless act of grace, forgiveness from a grieving widow, that touched me deeply. And I hope it touches many and if there’s anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that and not this,” Kimmel said of Charlie Kirk’s widow.
Kimmel’s suspension came after news broke earlier this summer that CBS was canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, citing “financial reasons.” President Trump has also publicly called for NBC to canceled The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers because he doesn’t like what they say about him.