Day: September 18, 2025

• ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s show after FCC chair Brendan Carr criticized his Charlie Kirk remarks.
• Carr has been using the power of the FCC in unusual and muscular ways.
• He has threatened broadcast licenses, held up mergers, and opened DEI probes.

Brendan Carr didn’t order ABC to suspend Jimmy Kimmel, but the Federal Communications Commission chair got the outcome he wanted.

Kimmel, a late-night host who’s long criticized and mocked President Donald Trump, had his namesake show on ABC suspended “indefinitely” after his comments about Charlie Kirk, the right-wing influencer who was killed in public last week.

Carr, a Trump appointee, suggested on a conservative podcast on Wednesday that owners of local broadcast stations that license ABC programming should pressure the network to cancel Kimmel. He said broadcasters who don’t act “in the public interest” could get their licenses reviewed.

It wasn’t the first time Carr had picked a fight with a major broadcaster. The FCC held up Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount for months after Trump sued CBS News, a subsidiary of Paramount, claiming that a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris was deceptively edited. Paramount settled for $16 million in July. The FCC approved the deal a few weeks later.

With Kimmel, Carr once again got the result he wanted. Hours after Carr’s critique, ABC pulled Kimmel’s show after pressure from two major companies — Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair — that own local ABC affiliate stations.

An FCC commissioner pressuring local broadcasters into speaking up against a network is like “nothing we’ve confronted before in our modern day,” said Al Tompkins, a journalism professor at Syracuse University.

While it may be new, it’s also part of a pattern of Carr using his power in aggressive and novel ways at the helm of the FCC, from threatening to pull broadcast licenses to delaying deals and investigating DEI practices.

Carr’s maneuvering has led to some blowback. For example, FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, a Biden appointee, criticized Carr for politicizing the agency in a statement on Thursday.

“This FCC does not have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to police content or punish broadcasters for speech the government dislikes,” Gomez said.

Carr and his spokesperson didn’t respond to requests for comment.

How Carr is expanding the FCC’s influence

Carr’s actions show the FCC’s particular power over broadcast TV, as opposed to cable and streaming, where it lacks authority.

The FCC issues broadcast licenses to stations and can revoke them if they are not operating in the “public interest.”

Historically, the FCC has usually focused on limiting explicit content like nudity and swearing, Tompkins said. A high-profile example is the FCC fining CBS for broadcasting “indecency” after Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl, said G.S. Hans, a clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School.

The FCC’s public interest language “isn’t super powerful,” which is why the government usually gets specific with its rebukes, Hans said.

Revoking a broadcast license is extraordinarily rare. One of the few successful attempts was when the FCC revoked the licenses for WLBT-TV, a local station in Jackson, Mississippi, that refused to cover the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Another was when a Jacksonville TV station owned by the Washington Post came under pressure after reporting a racist comment from a former Supreme Court nominee of President Richard Nixon. The effort went nowhere, and the next year, Nixon resigned.

“Renewal is almost always automatic,” said Gigi Sohn, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden for FCC commissioner but withdrew after facing political pressure.

The mechanics of getting ABC off the air would be tricky, since broadcast licenses belong to local affiliate stations instead of the network itself. That means the FCC would have to revoke licenses from hundreds of stations across the country, which would be time-consuming.

Still, Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, said the FCC has other ways of pressuring broadcasters, such as holding hearings or commissioning studies. Carr has also gone down other routes, like investigating Disney and NBCUniversal parent Comcast for their DEI practices.

And as Paramount learned the hard way, the FCC can stand in the way of mergers.

Nexstar is attempting to acquire rival Tegna, and the FCC must approve the deal. The tie-up would likely require a rule change, since TV station owners can’t increase ownership to more than 39% of US households. To consummate its deal, Nexstar needs to be in the FCC’s good graces.

“They certainly don’t want to be crossways with Carr,” Tompkins said of Nexstar.

Beyond concerns about the FCC, companies like Nexstar can also face pushback from red-state viewers over highly politicized late-night shows, Tompkins added.

A new era of pressure

The FCC’s “public interest” clause has historically been applied very cautiously, and rarely to censor political content, said Seth Stern, the director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation.

“The law has never been interpreted to give the FCC this kind of authority over particular programs (or their hosts), and in fact provides just the opposite,” said Bob Corn-Revere, the chief counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

That may be beside the point. Even if Carr doesn’t actually attempt to revoke licenses, his rhetorical pressure sends a signal.

Sohn, who’s now a senior fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, said Carr is using his position as a “bully pulpit.”

“It doesn’t really matter what the exact powers are,” Poynter’s Edmonds said. “It’s a kind of signal, and a threat.”

At its core, The Ba***ds of Bollywood is a razor-sharp look at the dazzling yet treacherous world of Hindi cinema, told through the eyes of Aasmaan Singh (Lakshya), an ambitious newcomer whose rise in the industry is as meteoric as it is precarious. With his loyal best friend Parvaiz (Raghav Juyal) and savvy manager Sanya (Anya Singh) by his side, Aasmaan navigates a glittering landscape filled with egos and unexpected betrayals. His supportive family—including his musically inclined uncle Avtar (Manoj Pahwa), devoted mother Neeta Singh (Mona Singh), and father Rajat Singh (Vijayant Kohli)—provides grounding, yet even they cannot shield him from the sharp edges of Bollywood ambition.

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The series’ tension escalates when Aasmaan is cast opposite Karishma (Sahher Bambba), the debutante daughter of superstar Ajay Talvar (Bobby Deol). What begins as a professional pairing soon spirals into a tangled web of romance, rivalry, and manipulation, with seasoned producer Freddy Sodawallah (Manish Chaudhari) and fading actor Jaraj Saxena (Rajat Bedi) adding their own schemes into the mix. As Aasmaan’s career and personal life collide, the finale delivers revelations that turn everything the audience thought they knew on its head—from hidden family secrets to high-stakes industry machinations.

The Ba***ds of Bollywood is directed by first-time showrunner Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, and produced by his mother, Gauri Khan, for Red Chillies Entertainment. Their insider perspective and industry connections lend the series an added layer of authenticity and depth.

Let’s break down how all the major plotlines are resolved in Netflix’s The Ba***ds of Bollywood, which dropped all seven of its episodes on Sept. 18.

Read more: Here’s What’s New on Netflix in September 2025

Who is Aasmaan’s real father?

The biggest revelation of the finale occurs during the episode’s most intense moment: Aasmaan is physically fighting Ajay Talvar, a confrontation fueled by professional rivalry, personal anger, and the high stakes surrounding the young actor’s romantic involvement with Karishma. At the same time, Aasmaan and Karishma are just moments away from signing the legal paperwork to marry, unaware of the shocking truth that will upend everything.

It is Neeta Singh (Mona Singh) who interrupts this climactic showdown, dropping the revelation that Ajay Talvar is Aasmaan’s biological father. Although the show leaves her exact words muted, the implications are unmistakable.

Parallel to this moment, Freddy Sodawallah (Manish Chaudhari), the seasoned and shrewd Bollywood producer who has been managing Aasmaan’s early career, and Jaraj Saxena (Rajat Bedi), a fading actor desperate for a comeback, investigate the truth on their own. They uncover an old film reel featuring a young Ajay Talvar and Neeta together, which aligns with Aasmaan’s birth timeline. Freddy’s experience navigating the industry and Jaraj’s knowledge of past Bollywood productions allow them to piece together the evidence that confirms Ajay is indeed Aasmaan’s father.

This revelation reframes the entire narrative. Ajay’s longstanding hostility toward Aasmaan, once interpreted as ego and industry rivalry, is revealed to be a desperate attempt to prevent a romantic relationship between half-siblings. Consequently, Aasmaan and Karishma’s romantic relationship ends immediately, transforming them into supportive allies as they navigate the truth about their family and reconcile with the complexities of their parents’ past decisions.

Read more: How India Learned to Read Subtitles

Does Aasmaan make a deal with Gafoor Bhai?

Aasmaan’s professional life becomes even more complex thanks to his alliance with Gafoor Bhai, an underworld don who wishes to produce a biopic starring Aasmaan. The series finale confirms that Aasmaan accepts the deal, which includes three internationally produced films. While this ensures his career will continue despite prior setbacks, it also places him in a precarious situation: he is bound solely by Gafoor’s word, not a formal contract, leaving him vulnerable to the don’s unpredictable demands.

Before this deal, Aasmaan’s career had hit a significant low: after being sabotaged by Ajay Talvar, losing his role opposite Karishma, and experiencing the collapse of his production opportunities, all his previous projects were stalled or removed from his control. The Filmfirst Award win offers a brief moment of recognition, but it does not restore his standing in the industry. In this context, the Gafoor biopic deal becomes his only viable path forward—a chance to regain momentum and visibility, albeit under high-risk circumstances.

This deal amplifies the stakes: Aasmaan must now juggle the pressures of criminal underworld obligations, his high-profile family drama, and the unforgiving glare of Bollywood stardom. The finale sets the stage for a darker, more intricate narrative, showing that his career and personal life are now inseparably entangled with both power and danger, and that surviving in Bollywood will demand navigating a world where every opportunity comes with a hidden cost.

What is The Bastards of Bollywood?

In the series finale, Freddy Sodawallah announces a new film titled The Bastards of Bollywood, starring Ajay Talvar, Aasmaan Singh, and Karishma. This movie within the show dramatizes the characters’ real-life events while blurring the line between fiction and reality.

The announcement follows a discreet meeting between Neeta Singh and Ajay Talvar, where they discuss coping with the shocking family revelations. Their conversation almost reaches a sense of closure, but is interrupted when they realize they were manipulated into meeting at this specific location.

This scheme is orchestrated by Jaraj Saxena, Freddy and his assistant Jeejeebhoy, who cloned Neeta and Ajay’s phones and sent messages to lure them to the spot. At the meeting, they film the entire conversation, capturing definitive proof of Ajay’s past affair with Neeta.

Freddy leverages it to guarantee Ajay’s participation in the new film, transforming a private family scandal into a public, high-stakes cinematic production. The movie becomes a meta-commentary on Bollywood itself, forcing the characters to confront their personal and professional lives under intense scrutiny, while offering audiences a dramatized version of the events that have unfolded throughout the series.