Jimmy Kimmel moves interview with James Talarico to YouTube, says FCC pressure kept him off ABC TV | Today’s news

Jimmy Kimmel said the interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico will not air on ABC. Kimmel accused the Federal Communications Commission of pressuring the network and its affiliates for the reservation.

Why was the interview not broadcast?

The interview, which was not televised, will be posted on YouTube.

Kimmel announced the decision during Wednesday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! saying the program faced threats from the FCC over its decision to interview Talarico, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Texas.

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“Now that he’s president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our ABC network, our affiliates, our local stations based on simple traditional editorial decisions — they don’t seem to like booking guests,” Kimmel said, referring to President Donald Trump.

The dispute centers on the FCC’s equal time rules, which generally require broadcasters to provide comparable opportunities to legally qualified candidates competing for the same position.

For decades, daytime and nighttime talk shows were generally considered “bona-fide” news programs and were exempt from the requirement to interview political candidates. But the Republican-led FCC reversed that stance in January, meaning talk shows could potentially face an equal-time obligation to feature candidates.

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Kimmel argued that political candidates have long appeared on late-night television shows without causing such problems. He pointed to previous interviews on his program, including appearances by Trump when he was a candidate.

The anchor said the changed approach has now put pressure on the ABC and its local affiliates, especially in Talarico’s campaign in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country.

ABC declined to comment on the decision, according to Reuters.

The second interview with Talaric moved to the Internet

The Kimmel episode isn’t the first time Talarico has found himself at the center of a dispute involving the late-night program and the FCC.

Earlier this year, an interview with Talarico on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was also moved from television due to concerns about the equal time rule. The interview was subsequently made available online rather than through the traditional broadcast of the program.

That history made Kimmel’s announcement particularly noteworthy. What was once an ordinary late-night guest has now become part of a broader dispute over whether broadcast regulation is beginning to influence editorial decisions at American television networks.

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Talarico is running in Texas, where he is seeking to win a Senate race that could have implications for control of the chamber after the November election. He is set to face the Republican nominee who emerged from a contest involving Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The FCC faces criticism due to political pressures

Kimmel’s comments come amid growing tensions between broadcasters and the FCC under the Trump administration.

Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez criticized the agency’s approach after the latest dispute, describing concerns about political interference in broadcasters’ editorial decisions. ABC has also been involved in a broader legal battle with the FCC over regulatory actions involving the network and its affiliates.

There was no evidence that the White House directly ordered ABC to retract the Talarico interview. Kimmel’s charge is that regulatory pressure created an environment in which the network and its affiliates were unwilling to risk airing it.

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For viewers, there is a practical result – the interview has not disappeared, but it will not be seen on the ABC broadcast network. Instead, it will be published online.

But for Kimmel, the decision represents something much bigger. His argument is that the routine choice of who to invite to the nightly program is no longer considered a purely editorial decision – and that the consequences of this shift are now being felt on American television.