[somethoughts]

It feels a better strategy for all parties involved to have transitioned these shows to ABC's streaming properties (i.e. Hulu) and made them "exclusive" content for these platforms.

This would have put them out of the reach of the FCC (based on the FCC's initial spectrum is for public benefit for all claim) for now.

There is probably significant IP in both of these shows that could still have been monetized given brand familiarity. It would have been less than before but still something is better than nothing.

I don't have any data to back this up but I can't imagine a lot of people still use Over The Air TV. And the intersection of people who rely solely on OTA TV and are clamoring to watch Kimmel/View is probably even lower.

This also would probably have benefitted the administration in that it wouldn't have trigger as many alarm bells from a free speech perspective.