* President and first lady call for ABC to fire Kimmel

* He joked that Melania Trump looked 'like an expectant

widow'

* FCC set to order license review of Disney ( DIS )-owned ABC

stations

By Dawn Chmielewski and David Shepardson

LOS ANGELES, April 28 (Reuters) - A joke by talk show

host Jimmy Kimmel that prompted calls from the White House for

the ABC TV network to fire the comedian has triggered the first

crisis facing Walt Disney's ( DIS ) new CEO Josh D'Amaro.

Last Thursday, Kimmel, whose late-night TV program airs on

Disney's ( DIS ) ABC, did a send-up of the annual White House

Correspondents' Association dinner, joking that First Lady

Melania Trump had "a glow like an expectant widow."

The joke was made three days before the actual black-tie

dinner, celebrating press freedom and free speech, in

Washington. The president and first lady were rushed from the

dinner following an assassination attempt.

The Trumps called on Monday for ABC to fire Kimmel, the

latest incident of the White House pushing back on free speech

that has roiled the world of late-night comedy.

During his monologue on Monday night's show, Kimmel said the

joke had been misconstrued and was not a "call to assassination"

but a comment on the age difference between Trump, who will be

80 in June, and his wife, who turned 56 this month.

Steven Cheung, an assistant to the president and White House

communications director, accused Kimmel of "making a disgusting

joke about assassinating the President" and "doubling down on

that joke instead of doing the decent thing by apologizing," in

a post on X.

The FCC is set to order as soon as later today license

reviews of the 8 Disney ( DIS )-owned ABC stations, a source told

Reuters.

D'Amaro, who became Disney ( DIS ) CEO in March, must decide how to

respond to mounting pressure from the White House to fire

Kimmel.

A Disney ( DIS ) spokesman could not be reached for comment about

Kimmel, who survived a previous call for ABC to fire him.

ABC is regulated under the Federal Communications Commission,

which issues broadcast licenses to its affiliated stations. FCC

Chairman Brendan Carr told Reuters last month he was considering

moving up reviews, which are not scheduled until October 2028.

Carr did not immediately respond to a text message and the

FCC did not immediately comment on whether it would review

Kimmel's remarks.

In ​September 2025, the head of the FCC pressured

broadcasters to take Kimmel off the air. ABC briefly suspended

Kimmel's show that ​month over comments he ⁠made about the

assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Past White House Correspondents' Dinner controversies have

often centered on comedians pushing the event's traditional

roast format too far for some attendees. Late-night hosts

Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers faced criticism for their

stinging remarks. This year's event was to feature mentalist Oz

Pearlman, not a comedian.

Trump skipped the 2017 dinner and held a rally instead.

Comedian Michelle Wolf's 2018 routine, especially jokes

involving Sarah Huckabee Sanders, triggered backlash -- and in

2019 the association dropped the roast format in favor of

historian Ron Chernow.