It looks like Disney’s dance with late-night liberalism has finally cost them—and not just in goodwill. Following the brief suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the host’s tasteless remarks about a high-profile murder case involving a Turning Point USA figure, streaming giant Disney+ and its subsidiary Hulu saw a massive spike in subscriber cancellations, new data reveals.
Kimmel’s show was put on ice “indefinitely” by ABC (owned by Disney) after he made inflammatory comments regarding 22-year-old Tyler Robinson—the man charged in the tragic killing of conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. The timing couldn’t have been worse for the entertainment conglomerate already under fire for its increasingly political stance.
While liberals cried “censorship,” conservatives—including President Donald Trump and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr—welcomed the suspension as a long-overdue reckoning. Carr even warned companies like Disney that his agency “can do this the easy way or the hard way” if they refuse to hold media personalities accountable for their conduct.
Yet despite the tough talk and the supposed disciplinary action, the network reversed course almost immediately. By late September, Disney announced Kimmel’s return, claiming they had engaged in “thoughtful conversations with Jimmy” and that his comments were “ill-timed and thus insensitive”—a corporate euphemism if ever there was one.
But by then, the damage was already done.
According to a report by Business Insider’s James Faris, new data from analytics firm Antenna shows that Americans didn’t just tweet their outrage—they canceled their subscriptions in droves. In September alone, 8% of Disney+ users and 10% of Hulu users in the U.S. ditched their subscriptions. That’s nearly double the normal churn rate for these services, which typically see a 4–5% monthly drop.
In raw numbers, Antenna reported that 3 million U.S. customers canceled Disney+, while Hulu lost a staggering 4.1 million. For comparison, their average monthly cancellations over the previous three months were just 1.2 million and 1.9 million, respectively.
Even as other streaming platforms saw minor bumps in cancellations amid industry-wide price hikes—Apple TV, HBO Max, Paramount+, and Starz among them—none came close to the nosedive Disney experienced. It’s clear this wasn’t just about pricing. It was political, and it was personal.
While Faris admitted it was “unclear” exactly how many of the cancellations were a direct result of the Kimmel controversy, the timing is damning. The boycott calls trended precisely during the days the show was off the air. Whether viewers were punishing Disney for the suspension or the half-hearted way it was handled, the message was unmistakable: the American public is fed up with double standards and politically biased entertainment.
Adding insult to injury, affiliates initially distancing themselves from Kimmel—like Nexstar and Sinclair—caved and agreed to resume airing his show, further showing the corporate cowardice on display when the woke mob turns up the pressure.
Once again, corporate America learned the hard way: you can’t mock half the country without consequences. And this time, those consequences hit them where it hurts most—in their bottom line.
