Disney's Dana Walden talks Jimmy Kimmel fallout, succession rumours

Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden is offering 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 pause.

In an interview on Bloomberg TV’s The Circuit, Walden said there was no outreach from former President Donald Trump or his administration, despite Trump publicly claiming the late-night show had been “canceled.” “We did not hear from them,” she said.

Walden explained that the decision to pull the September 17 episode stemmed from rising backlash after comments Kimmel made about the murder of Charlie Kirk. Two major affiliate groups threatened to drop the show, and FCC chairman Brendan Carr said he would look into ABC stations’ licenses.

“We didn’t think that was going to be possible that night,” Walden said. “So we hit pause to have conversations with Jimmy. We wanted to resolve the situation in a certain 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 addressed broader issues in the industry as well, including how Disney is approaching artificial intelligence. She said the company is exploring AI to be “faster [and] more efficient,” while stressing that Disney is working “together with the actors, the writers, directors … to protect the contributors in that process.” 

She added, “Disney magic is storytelling. It doesn’t have to be any one form.”

As for speculation about Bob Iger’s eventual successor, Walden avoided engaging. “Being pit against my colleagues I don’t appreciate,” she said. “We are a very tight organization … I have enormous faith in where this company’s going.”