The US Federal Communications Commission is ordering an early review of Disney's television broadcast licences days after President Donald Trump called for the firing of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
Trump had urged ABC - whose parent company is Disney - to pull Kimmel's show after the comedian joked that Melania Trump had the glow of an "expectant widow". Kimmel made the remarks days before a gunman fired shots at a gala attended by the Trumps.
In an order on Tuesday, the FCC said it had been investigating Disney's ABC stations for possible violations, including unlawful discrimination.
A Disney spokesperson told the BBC that ABC and its stations serve the public within FCC guidelines.
The stations "have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with trusted news, emergency information, and public‑interest programming", the company spokesperson said. "Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate."
The FCC order directs the company to file licence-renewal applications for all of its licensed TV stations within 30 days.
The agency as part of its renewal review can require Disney to prove that it meets the agency's public-interest standards. The Disney-owned ABC television station licences were not scheduled for renewal until 2028.
The reviews could lead to the revocation of the stations' licences to broadcast, an action the commission has not taken in more than 40 years, Reuters reported.
In a statement, Democratic FCC commissioner Anna M Gomez called the FCC's order "a political stunt".
"This is unprecedented, unlawful, and going nowhere," she wrote on X. "Companies should challenge it head-on. The First Amendment is on their side."
The move comes as the White House has continued to pressure ABC to fire Kimmel. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said on Tuesday that Kimmel should be "shunned for the rest of his life".
At the start of his show on Monday night, Kimmel had defended his comments about the first lady.
"It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination," he said.
"I've been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular," Kimmel added.
Earlier on Monday, Trump had called his late-night sketch a "call to violence" and Melania Trump accused Kimmel of deepening "the political sickness within America".
The US president and his wife were evacuated unharmed from a gala dinner on Saturday night after a gunman opened fire near a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton.
The suspect, identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, was tackled by authorities near a staircase leading down to a ballroom where the White House Correspondents' dinner was taking place. Hundreds of journalists, officials and public figures attending. The suspect is now charged with trying to assassinate the president.
The FCC's call for an early licence review is quite rare, said Jeffrey Schneider, a professor at University of Southern California Gould School of Law. He said the agency has ordered early reviews before, but usually based on technical issues or fraudulent conduct.
He said it was highly unlikely that Disney would lose its licences, saying the burden was on the FCC to show "intentional and repeated violations" of regulations.
"In my opinion, it is a purely political act meant to assuage the administration's supporters," he said.
Kimmel was taken off air last September after he made comments about the fatal shooting of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
In a monologue, Kimmel had said the "Maga gang" - a reference to Trump's followers - was trying to "score political points" from the murder of Kirk. His show was reinstated a week later.
The FCC, created in 1934, was originally tasked with authorising then-scarce radio – and later TV – broadcasting frequencies. The commission sets rules for disclosing sponsors, emergency broadcasts, and content regarding obscenity and decency.
Trump has previously suggested that TV networks that give him "bad publicity" should be stripped of their licences, raising questions about the administration's authority to do so.
Last year, FCC chairman Brendan Carr sent a letter to Disney notifying the firm it was opening an investigation into Disney's diversity and inclusion practices, saying there were concerns the company was promoting diversity "in a manner that does not comply" with government regulation.
