Americans Threaten to Boycott Disney After ABC Suspends Jimmy Kimmel Show

Disney is facing mounting boycott threats after its ABC network decided to indefinitely suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live! over comments made by host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s recent assassination.

Social media erupted with calls to boycott Disney and ABC following Kimmel’s suspension. (Photo: Jimmy Kimmel Facebook)

Many claim ABC’s move is a violation of free speech and sets a disturbing precedent for censoring commentary—especially from comedians—if some people find it upsetting, Dave Smith reported for Fortune.

“Just canceled my Disney+ account!” said one X user, who shared a screenshot of his account page showing the reason for ending his subscription was “for canceling Jimmy Kimmel’s show!”

Another X user wrote, “Hit them where it hurts: the $$$.” Several threads on Reddit called for similar action.

ABC announced Wednesday that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be “pre-empted indefinitely” following remarks Kimmel made during his Monday night monologue.

During the show, Kimmel criticized what he called the “MAGA gang” for “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.

The suspension followed decisions by major ABC affiliate owners to drop Kimmel’s show. Nexstar Media Group, which owns 32 ABC affiliate stations and is pursuing a $6.2 billion merger with Tegna requiring FCC approval, announced it would preempt the show “for the foreseeable future.”

Social media erupted with calls to boycott Disney and ABC following Kimmel’s suspension. On platforms like X and Bluesky, hashtags such as #BoycottDisney and #BoycottABCNetwork gained traction.

Political commentator “JoJoFromJerz” urged her one million followers to “boycott everything associated with ABC and Disney.”

Keith Edwards, a left-leaning political commentator, wrote on Threads: “Let’s do to Disney what we did to Target,” referencing the successful campaign against Target earlier this year.

After Target rolled back its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in January, the retailer faced a sustained boycott that cost the company $12.4 billion in market value.

Target’s stock dropped 27% in the first half of the year, with foot traffic declining 5.7% year-over-year.