Jimmy Kimmel Says Talarico Interview Won’t Air on TV Because of FCC Pressure
Jimmy Kimmel said Wednesday that an interview with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico will be released online rather than broadcast on ABC, a decision the late-night host attributed to pressure from the Federal Communications Commission under President Donald Trump.
The interview, scheduled for Thursday, will instead appear on the YouTube channel for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Kimmel said the change was intended in part to protect ABC’s local television stations, particularly those in Texas, from potential regulatory scrutiny.
“Out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas, who would have to deal with this nonsense, my interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television.”
Talarico, a Democratic state representative, is running for U.S. Senate in Texas against Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton. His planned appearance on Kimmel’s show comes amid an ongoing dispute over how federal political broadcasting rules apply to late-night and daytime television programs.
In January, the FCC issued guidance addressing the equal time rule, which generally requires broadcast stations that allow a legally qualified political candidate to use their airwaves to provide comparable opportunities to other candidates seeking the same office. The agency specifically addressed late-night and daytime talk shows in the memo, marking a shift from how it had treated such programs for years.
Twenty years earlier, an FCC decision had found that certain late-night and daytime talk programs could qualify for an exemption from the rule. The January guidance put renewed scrutiny on whether interviews with candidates appearing on those programs should receive that protection.
Kimmel accused the administration and the FCC of using that regulatory authority to interfere with ordinary decisions broadcasters make.
He said that during Trump’s administration, the Federal Communications Commission “has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations, based on simple, traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they don’t like.”
The FCC has disputed broader accusations that its enforcement of the equal time rules amounts to censorship. Chairman Brendan Carr said earlier this year, during a separate controversy over a Talarico television appearance, that broadcasters remained free to interview candidates as long as they followed applicable regulations, including by offering comparable opportunities to other qualified candidates.
Kimmel is not the first late-night host to say regulatory concerns affected whether an interview with Talarico could be shown on broadcast television.
In February, Stephen Colbert said CBS would not air his interview with Talarico after the network’s lawyers raised concerns about the FCC’s equal time requirements. The interview was ultimately posted online instead.
“He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast.”
CBS said in a February statement that “the show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates.”
The network also said Colbert’s team had been presented with options for providing other candidates with opportunities under the rule before “The Late Show” chose to post the Talarico interview on YouTube.
Talarico’s appearance on another ABC program also attracted FCC scrutiny that month. The agency opened an investigation involving “The View” and its interview with Talarico over questions about the equal-opportunities requirements.
The disagreement over the rule has extended beyond the networks and their hosts. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the commission’s Democratic member, criticized the January guidance when it was released, arguing that the agency had not formally changed its regulations and warning that broadcasters could interpret the announcement as pressure to alter editorial decisions.
The dispute also comes as ABC’s parent company, the Walt Disney Co., is engaged in a legal fight with the FCC. In April, the commission, led by Carr, directed Disney’s eight ABC-owned local television stations to file for early renewal of their broadcast licenses. Disney sued over the decision last month.
In its lawsuit, Disney and ABC characterized the commission’s actions as an unconstitutional campaign of retaliation and argued that the accelerated license proceedings threatened the network’s editorial independence. The FCC rejected that characterization and said its investigation includes allegations of unlawful discrimination by Disney.
Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly attacked Kimmel publicly and called for the comedian to be fired.
ABC temporarily pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from the air about a year ago following Kimmel’s comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September of last year. The program returned nearly a week later.
When he returned, Kimmel addressed the controversy directly, saying that “it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.”
Kimmel also revisited his clashes with the agency when “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” returned from a planned summer hiatus on Sept. 8. In his first monologue back, he noted that the program had been on the air since 2003 and took a pointed swipe at Carr over what Kimmel described as an unsuccessful attempt to use the FCC’s regulatory authority against the show.
The clash over Talarico’s appearance is particularly striking, Kimmel said Wednesday, because political candidates have long appeared on late-night talk shows. Kimmel said he has interviewed candidates including Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz and Trump during more than two decades as a late-night host without similar problems.
Trump sat for an interview with Kimmel in 2015 while campaigning for president, a previous appearance Kimmel contrasted with Wednesday’s scrutiny over his planned conversation with Talarico.
“At that time, when he was the one sitting next to me, he seemed to have no problem with the idea of talk show hosts interviewing candidates. In fact, he was very eager to come back for another interview, which he did just before he became the nominee in 2016. But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed.”
Because the interview will appear on YouTube rather than ABC’s broadcast stations, it will not be subject to the FCC’s broadcast rules in the same way.
Moumita Basuroychowdhury is a Contributing Reporter at The National Digest. After earning an economics degree at Cornell University, she moved to NYC to pursue her MFA in creative writing. She enjoys reporting on science, business and culture news. You can reach her at moumita.b@thenationaldigest.com.