Disney’s decision to reinstate Jimmy Kimmel, was not only CEO Bob Iger’s plan all along—it is the correct move. Despite outcry from both the Left and the Right targeting Disney, Iger successfully defused a combustible, difficult situation through his pragmatic leadership, moving first to suspend Kimmel and then to reinstate him, as we called for previously.
Kimmel’s own return monologue following his reinstatement demonstrated Iger’s wisdom in charting this course. This show received the intense and widespread public attention of such TV milestones as Dallas’ “Who Shot JR?” or the final episodes of The Fugitive, Mash, and Cheers decades ago. Kimmel’s return not only quadruped his audience—his return monologue, as of this writing, has more than 21 million YouTube views.
Kimmel emotionally acknowledged the pain being felt by the family and followers of the slain Charlie Kirk, tearing up as he said:
It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it… I don’t think the murderer who shot Charlie Kirk represents anyone. This was a sick person.
Of course, Kimmel’s intent was not to mock the mourners, but to comment on the immediate politicization of the assassination by some on the Right, such as Stephen Miller, who accused left-wing political groups with no foundation or evidence. However, that is not the way many viewers received Kimmel’s message.
The prevailing narrative has failed to recognize Iger’s prudent defusing of this combustible situation. In recent days, after Iger moved to take Kimmel off air temporarily, there has been no shortage of attacks on Disney from critics on the Left accusing Iger of cowardice. One prominent commentator even said, “Iger is going to go down as Neville Chamberlain in a cashmere sweater but without the dignity,” bewilderingly drawing a moral equivalence between CEO of Disney and the infamous enabler of Adolf Hitler.
While these voices were right to courageously stand up for Jimmy Kimmel’s right to free speech and free expression, these critics failed to see that Iger’s decision to pull Kimmel off air temporarily had nothing to do with cowering to Trump or preemptive appeasement. What actually happened is primarily a business story. I have it directly from several key players that on September 11, one day after Charlie Kirk’s murder, Disney asked Kimmel to stay away from the topic altogether, wisely suggesting that murder, mourning, and mirth do not mix under any circumstance regardless of politics. When Kimmel defied Disney’s request and proceeded with his problematic monologue anyhow on the night of September 15, Disney immediately began deliberating disciplinary action, up to and including potential suspension, and asked Kimmel to apologize on-air.
These discussions had already been well advanced, with Kimmel intransigently refusing to apologize and a disciplinary decision imminent, when Sinclair and Nexstar threatened to blackout Kimmel if he refused to apologize to Kirk’s family, followed by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr ominously threatening Disney on a right-wing podcast. If anything, Carr’s bullying bluster only muddled what had been a foregone conclusion by Disney to suspend Kimmel, complicating his own self-professed goal of pulling Kimmel off the air.
Ultimately, politics had nothing to do with what amounted to a business decision for Iger. Reinstating Kimmel had apparently been Disney’s business plan all along, with the suspension sending a strong message akin to a sports star being suspended for a game or two, but not benched permanently. Nobody at Disney wanted to kill the golden goose—after all, despite mistaken reports that Kimmel loses upward of $20 million a year from plummeting advertising revenue across late night shows, taking the advertising revenue alone is misleading, and fails to take into account Kimmel’s significant contributions towards sponsorship, branding, and content licensing revenues across Disney—all of which combine to make Kimmel a significant revenue generator for Disney’s businesses.
Public outcry over Kimmel’s suspension—from the ACLU letter signed by 400 high-profile media personalities to the demonstrations on the street—drew involvement from the clergy, the university world, trade unions, professional trade associations, and investor groups. It offered a great model for how silent stakeholders can motivate CEOs waiting for the business roundtable to speak for them. However, in this case, that public outcry did not force Disney’s hand. If public outcry were such an effective tool, then Stephen Colbert—the consistently top-rated late night host over the last decade—would not be going off air.
While Iger’s decision had nothing to do with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s bullying bluster, it is noteworthy that ironically, Carr’s overreach drew trenchant criticism even from MAGA stalwarts. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said that Carr’s threat to pull broadcasters’ license over content and programming decisions was “right out of Goodfellas,” a statement supported by other GOP voices as varied as Mitch McConnell, Todd Young, and Rand Paul.
At the end of the day, Kimmel’s suspension—and subsequent reinstatement—are exactly what Walt Disney would have done. Bob Iger’s pragmatic leadership through this combustible crisis deserves plaudits, not criticism. And that’s exactly what it’s received from Iger’s fellow executives. Current and former CEOs with crisis management expertise have told us they’ve been impressed with how Iger navigated this charged situation from different vantage points:
Doug Parker, the revered former CEO of American Airlines, noted:
It’s unfortunate that the spin is Disney put Kimmel back on because of consumer/artist backlash, threatened boycotts, etc. The reality is Iger showed courage that other CEOs have not.
Jeff Bewkes, the former CEO of Time Warner, added:
All American media companies have a particular responsibility to uphold and defend the First Amendment.
Kay Koplovitz, founder of USA Networks and Syfy Networks, commented:
Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, showed courage we need in the media…more media CEO’s should follow his lead.
Tom Rogers, the founder of CNBC and MSNBC commented:
It is very clear that FCC Chairman Carr totally mischaracterized the current state of the public interest standard that broadcasters are subject to, and I applaud Bob Iger reinstating Kimmel in the face of the Chairman’s complete failure to accurately portray the FCC’s own rules.
Fred Allen, once the most frequently censored personality in media, said “imitation is the sincerest form of television.” In this case, it would be a good thing to see more media barons model themselves after Bob Iger’s courageous, principled, wise leadership at Disney.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is the founder and CEO of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute and the Lester Crown Professor of Leadership Practice at the Yale School of Management. A prominent expert in leadership and governance, his research helped to catalyze the exodus of over 1,000 firms from Russia over their invasion of Ukraine. He has informally advised five US presidents across parties.
Steven Tian is the research director of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute and a former analyst at Rockefeller Capital Management.
The views expressed in this article are the writers’ own.
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