Disney Entertainment Co-President Dana Walden offers her own account of what happened behind the scenes when Jimmy Kimmel Live! was briefly suspended in September – including the fact that the White House never contacted Disney during the hiatus.
In an interview on The Bloomberg TV circuitWalden said there has been no outreach from former President Donald Trump or his administration, although Trump publicly claimed the late-night show had been “cancelled.” “We haven’t heard from them,” she said.
Walden explained that the decision to remove the September 17 episode was a result of growing backlash after Kimmel’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s murder. Two major affiliates threatened to drop the show, and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said he would review the ABC stations’ licenses.
“We didn’t think it would be possible that night,” Walden said. “So we took a break to have conversations with Jimmy. We wanted to resolve the situation in some way to protect our employees, to think about our audience.”
She also pushed back on reports of mass cancellations of Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions during the suspension, calling them “highly exaggerated.”
Walden also addressed broader issues in the industry, including how Disney is approaching artificial intelligence. She said the company was exploring AI to be “faster.” [and] more effective”, while emphasizing that Disney works “with the actors, the writers, the directors… to protect the contributors in this process”.
She added: “Disney magic is storytelling. It doesn’t have to be in a single form.”
As for speculation about Bob Iger’s possible successor, Walden avoided getting involved. “I don’t like being confronted by my colleagues,” she said. “We are a very close-knit organization…I have tremendous confidence in the direction this company is going.”
