Jimmy Kimmel’s Suspension Lost Disney a Lot of Money

I will fully admit that, when Jimmy Kimmel was suspended, I went with doom and gloom. There was no doubt in my mind that Kimmel would be kept off the air, eventually get cancelled (or walk away), and late-night talk shows and free speech would march merrily into the wood chipper that is the current presidential administration. But, dammit, that isn’t what happened.

My mood certainly started to change once I saw the very public outcry regarding his suspension. People were chiming in from the left and the right, saying that such a move had taken things too far. It was deemed unjust by folks who are currently celebrating government agents disappearing people to other countries. At least we know they have a limit, I guess.

So many people rallied around Kimmel that he was back on the air in less than a week. Sinclair Broadcasting continued not airing his program, but even they would eventually relent, realizing that they looked like absolute dweebs (presumably). Hell, Brendan Carr, head of the FCC, who tried to be a tough guy and act like a mob boss, has now backtracked on his bullsh*t.

It seems most of the jerks who caused this are trying to move on like it didn’t happen. Not so fast! Disney’s shareholders are currently suing to receive any paperwork that was filed regarding Kimmel’s suspension. The company has until the end of today to provide the shareholders with that information. Disney reportedly lost 1.7 million subscribers across its streaming services in the wake of Kimmel’s suspension.

As Mike pointed out, capitalism (likely) worked. A representative has confirmed those lost subscriber numbers to LateNighter. Assuming that all those people only had the base Disney+ package (which is probably not the case), that would be a loss of around $12 million. That may be a drop in the bucket for a company like Disney, but that was after only a few days. If they had kept Kimmel off the air or cancelled his show, that could have gotten way worse.

Instead, the host is footloose and fancy free, taking shots at whomever he pleases. That includes Vice President JD Vance, who went on the Ingraham Angle recently to deny that Brendan Carr got Kimmel suspended. “Tell me exactly what Brendan Carr did to have Jimmy Kimmel taken off the air,” Vance whined. Kimmel called this assertion out for being exactly what it is: “Bullsh*t.”