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Bill O’Reilly Predicts Disney Will Spend ‘a Billion Dollars to Defend’ Jimmy Kimmel

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Bill O’Reilly suggested Jimmy Kimmel’s “expectant widow” joke could cost Disney a pretty penny once everything is all said and done.

During Wednesday’s episode of “No Spin News,” the conservative commentator weighed in on the FCC demanding an early review of Disney’s broadcast licenses amid the Kimmel drama. While O’Reilly felt that it wasn’t “going to go anywhere,” he did predict that Disney would feel the impact of the drama in their bank account.

“This is just socking it to — an old ’60s expression — the Disney company. The courts will protect Disney,” O’Reilly said. “Now, I did some investigating, as I told you guys I would, of why Disney has not cut Kimmel loose … [because] if a conservative commentator or pundit or comedian or anybody is doing what Kimmel is doing, they’re gone. Everybody knows it. They couldn’t survive.”

As O’Reilly went on, he alleged that Hollywood agencies have warned Disney to leave Kimmel alone, supposedly threatening a boycott of their talent if the late night host is punished.

“That’s the threat,” O’Reilly said. “That’s what keeps Kimmel in his job.”

Representatives for Disney did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

The veteran journalist also called out the statement from the National Religious Broadcasters, who filed a complaint with the FCC against Disney.

“Here’s what it says: ‘When influential voices joke about death or treat political opponents as disposable, it contributes to a culture where violence feels thinkable to the already unstable. National platforms carry real weight,” he said. “‘With that comes responsibility. That’s why this action is warranted.’”

He continued: “So, summing up, Disney’s going to feel it. Doesn’t look to me like they’re going to cave. But, I’ll tell you what, [it’s] going to cost them maybe a billion dollars to defend. And, you know, President Trump’s not going to back away from this. And Kimmel will just go on doing what Kimmel does — selling hatred.” Watch his comments below.

O’Reilly’s comments came one day after the FCC asked Disney’s eight local ABC broadcast stations to apply for an early renewal for broadcast licenses, a rare move that increases government pressure on the company. The demand came amid Melania and Donald Trump’s calls for Kimmel’s termination over last week’s mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech, in which he called the first lady an “expectant widow.”

A spokesperson for Disney told TheWrap that it believes “ABC and its stations have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with trusted news, emergency information, and public‑interest programming.”

“We are confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels,” the statement read. “Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate.”

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5 Back-to-School Movies to Stream in August

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Summer is rapidly coming to an end, even if the weather doesn’t feel like it just yet, and that means it’s back to school for many. To prepare, some good back-to-school movies might help.

Whether you’re headed back to the classroom yourself — either a student or maybe a teacher — or just have a loved one getting back into the swing of things, a new school year can be daunting. So, for this list, we picked some films that can remind you how fun it is, while maybe teaching some good lessons along the way.

Here are five back-to-school movies to stream in August.

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CA Lawmakers Compromise With Film Industry On Corporate Tax Credit Cap

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The California production community can breathe a sigh of relief: State lawmakers have officially introduced a bill meant to allow studios a few key exemptions from a recently enacted restriction on corporate tax credits.

AB136, introduced Friday evening, addresses concerns raised from stakeholders including the Motion Picture Association about the threat of undermining the efforts to expand California’s Film & TV Tax Credit pool to $750 million.

Lawmakers have to consider legislation for 72 hours before voting. With that in mind, a vote on AB136 is likely to come Monday evening, hours before the midnight end to the legislative session.

The state budget, passed this summer, seeks to stabilize revenue by preventing corporations from offsetting more than $5 million in tax liability annually for the next three years. Several advocacy groups pushed for a complete exemption, but the solution introduced by lawmakers on Friday evening does fall short of that.

Instead, only independent productions will be completely exempt from the $5 million cap. The legislation also addresses concerns about the payback period for studios that have elected to refund credits for cash. Current law allows studios to get cash instead of claiming the credit against tax liability for a 10% discount on the total with a payback period of five years. The fix accelerates that to two years with just a 5% discount.

The new legislation will also extend the expiration date of the non-refundable tax credits that were issued prior to 2025.

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Rosie O’Donnell Wraps Up Jimmy Kimmel Live Week as Top Guest Host

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Rosie O’Donnell wrapped up her week guest hosting on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” to impressive numbers, ranking as the highest-rated summer substitute thus far.

For the week of Aug. 17, O’Donnell averaged a total viewership of 2.17 million and a demo viewership of 237,000 viewers, according to live-plus-three-day viewing figures from Nielsen reported by LateNighter.

O’Donnell’s week of hosting marks the ABC late night show’s most-watched week in both measures since mid-June, before Kimmel tossed the show over to a suite of guest hosts, including Tiffany Haddish, Anthony Anderson, Ike Barinholtz and Colman Domingo.

In fact, viewership for O’Donnell’s week of hosting was up in both categories from the week of Aug. 9, which was headed up by Anderson. Total viewership for O’Donnell was up 40% from the previous week, while demo viewership saw a 34% rise.

With that, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” maintained its lead on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” which averaged 1.43 million viewers and 171,000 demo viewers, as well as “Comics Unleashed,” which averaged 654,000 total viewers and 75,000 demo viewers across the same hour.

O’Donnell’s stint hosting also boosted ratings for ABC’s “Nightline” as it picked up at 12:35 a.m. The show averaged 918,000 total viewers – up 11% from the previous week — and 110,000 demo viewers — rising 20% from the previous week.

O’Donnell started her guest hosting week strong. On Monday, Aug. 17, O’Donnell brought in 1.87 million total viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures reported by LateNighter, which marked the biggest audience for any of Kimmel’s guest hosts so far this summer. 

Country music artist Jelly Roll took the baton from O’Donnell for the week of Aug. 24. So far, Jelly Roll’s Monday audience landed at 1.07 million viewers, down 11% from the previous Monday when O’Donnell held the stage. Full ratings for Jelly Roll’s week of hosting will be available next week.

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