Disney’s Dana Walden says Trump White House made no contact during Jimmy Kimmel suspension
WASHINGTON, DC: Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden said in an interview that the White House never contacted Disney executives while Jimmy Kimmel, the late-night host, was suspended from ABC for six days in September.
Her comments counter the early impression that Donald Trump administration was pressuring the network during the uproar. Trump’s public celebration of the suspension had led many observers to assume that some form of official pressure had been applied, especially amid the wider political reaction to Kimmel’s on-air joke about “the MAGA gang."
No contact between Trump White House and studio leadership
Walden said there was no outreach from the Trump White House to Disney leadership as ABC assessed the fallout and decided how to proceed. Executives, she explained, were focused on “taking the temperature down” during an unusually volatile moment.
“We hit pause to have conversations with Jimmy,” Walden said in a Thursday interview with Bloomberg TV’s The Circuit. She noted that the suspension decision was made in a narrow window as the episode was set to air.
Kimmel was pulled from rotation after station proprietors—under pressure from local affiliates such as Nexstar and Sinclair—opted to remove 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' from their schedules. Affiliates were reacting to outrage surrounding Kimmel’s joke referencing the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a moment that quickly ignited political backlash.
Trump-appointed FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr urged broadcasters to take action if they believed the show violated content standards.
Dana Walden says decision aimed to protect employees and audience
“We were thinking about only one thing as we made that decision very close to his show going back up on that Wednesday, and that was the situation was extremely heated,” Walden told Bloomberg’s Emily Chang. “We wanted to take the temperature down, and we didn’t think that was going to be possible that night. We wanted to resolve the situation in a certain way to protect our employees, to think about our audience.”
Chang asked whether Trump had personally or indirectly reached out to Disney leadership. “Did you get any pressure from the White House?” Chang said.
“He did not,” Walden replied. “We did not hear from them.”
Kimmel’s suspension, which was initially described as “indefinite,” sparked criticism from both Democrats and Republicans and fueled speculation about censorship. Reports claiming massive subscription cancellations followed, with some outlets citing as many as 3 million cancellations for Disney+ and 4.1 million for Hulu during the three-month period.
Walden disputed the numbers. “Well, I think those reports were highly exaggerated,” she said. “You saw the number of subscribers that we reported during our earnings; we had a very strong quarter. I think that this issue is firmly in our past.”
