Disney CEO Bob Iger moved to put late-night host Jimmy Kimmel back on the air after he was “stung” by criticism from his old boss Michael Eisner, whom he “loathes,” according to a report.
Iger, who is said to have a reputation for having a “thin skin,” relented on Monday and gave the green light to resume new episodes of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” without requiring the longtime host to offer up an apology for falsely claiming that Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin as one of the “MAGA gang.”
While Iger was pilloried by unions, entertainers and liberals for the move, it was Eisner’s “drive-by” message on X that “stung” the most, according to Puck News.
In a rare public rebuke, Eisner, 83, whose bruising mid-2000s succession battle with Iger is said to have soured the relationship between the two men, wrote an X post last week asking: “Where has all the leadership gone?”
Eisner accused his successor of failing to stand up to “out-of-control intimidation” by the FCC.
“Maybe the Constitution should have said, ‘Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, except in one’s political or financial self-interest’,” Eisner wrote.
The blow landed squarely on Iger, who returned as CEO in late 2022 and has been navigating a polarized media climate.
An industry veteran told Puck News that Iger “loathes” Eisner after a bruising succession fight — making the broadside especially stinging as Disney scrambled to calm affiliates, advertisers and staff.
According to the veteran, the animus stems from Eisner’s having “tortured and humiliated” Iger in the CEO succession process two decades ago.
If Eisner were still in charge at the House of Mouse, he would have handled the Kimmel brouhaha differently than Iger, according to observers.
While Iger bowed to pressure to bench Kimmel after affiliate owners Sinclair and Nexstar protested the host’s Kirk monologue, Eisner would have threatened the two companies, industry analysts told Puck.
“Michael doesn’t give a f–k what anybody else thinks if he thinks he’s doing the right thing,” a former Disney insider told the news site.
“And sometimes it would bite him in the ass.”
Veteran Disney observers told Puck News on Tuesday they were shocked by Iger’s predecessor’s social media post in which he weighed in on such a sensitive, politically charged topic.
“I can’t think of a time when he weighed in on something that was political with a capital P,” Dan Wolf, Disney’s former vice president of corporate communications, told Puck News.
The Post has sought comment from Iger, Eisner and Disney.
Eisner’s X post only added to the pressure on Iger, according to the Puck News report.
The Disney boss faced backlash from unions representing creatives as well as from A-list celebrities and entertainers who say he capitulated to what is widely perceived as the Trump administration’s assault on the First Amendment.
Iger is also reported to have paid a personal price for his decision last week to suspend Kimmel.
Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, the dean of USC’s Annenberg School, were slated to host a fundraiser at their Los Angeles home for women in media, but the host committee was considering pulling out as the Kimmel backlash swelled, according to Puck News.
The potential walkout shows the extent to which the suspension had spilled beyond corporate PR into Hollywood’s social calendar, threatening Iger’s standing with key allies and donors, the news site reported.
Iger and Eisner have a long history in the corporate boardroom.
In the early 2000s, Disney under Eisner was stagnating after a string of box office flops, sagging ratings for its flagship television property ABC and its ruptured relationship with Steve Jobs’ animation studio Pixar.
This triggered a shareholder revolt led by Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold that culminated in 43% of company investors withholding support for Eisner, costing him the chairmanship while he stayed on as CEO.
Disney and Gold blasted Eisner at the time, accusing him of orchestring a “sham” search for CEO that was designed to land on his preferred candidate, Iger.
While Eisner publicly called Iger his “preferred choice,” concerns persisted that he was “hand-picked” — further fueling the public perception of a rigged, humiliating process for everyone involved, Iger included.
In 2005, Iger eventually succeeded to the position of CEO after reaching a compromise with Disney. He then moved quickly to distance the company from Eisner’s centralized style of leadership by rebuilding ties with creative partners—most notably Pixar.
