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| Jimmy Kimmel was told to not feature James Talarico. |
Jimmy Kimmel returned from his summer vacation. He immediately addressed the rumors that ABC might not renew his show after this season. He played a montage of President Donald J. Trump's chaotic summer session. He also addressed the guest hosts who filled in for him.
Kimmel on Wednesday addressed another issue. He has a feud with Brenden Carr, the cotton swab head of the Federal Communications Commission. Carr has a personal feud with Kimmel.
Kimmel has acknowledged that he was going to interview Texas Democratic senate nominee James Talarico this week. He said that the FCC slapped a restriction on him.
Kimmel noted The Late Show incident where Stephen Colbert was barred from hosting him and it drove frustrations among supporters.
Colbert asked viewers to watch the interview on YouTube. It went viral.
Kimmel is doing the same only this time, he took aim at Carr, Trump and the Republicans.
Kimmel took a few minutes in his Wednesday night monologue to promote an interview that was cut from his show. And it wasn't with Matt Damon.
In what the late-night host described as a first in his 23 years helming ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," an interview with a guest was forced off the air by the FCC.
"I'll be interviewing James Talarico tomorrow night, under unusual circumstances," Kimmel said, saying that he would air the Thursday night interview with the politician on his YouTube channel instead.
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| Race must be close. |
Talarico, a Democratic state representative from Austin, is running a Senate campaign against Republican former Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Polls have shown a close race between the two candidates in a state that hasn't elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since the 1980s.
The late-night host blamed the FCC scrutiny on President Donald Trump, saying that it was ironic that the FCC under Trump was invoking the equal-time rule since the president had appeared on Kimmel's show twice as a candidate for office in 2015 and 2016.
"At that time, when he was the one sitting next to me, he seemed to have no problem with a talk show host interviewing candidates," Kimmel said. "But for some reason, and I can't seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed."
Kimmel also noted that he had Sen. Ted Cruz on his show during the Texas Republican's 2018 reelection campaign, while never facing pushback from the FCC.
It was the latest back-and-forth between the FCC and ABC's late-night host. Almost exactly a year ago, FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened punitive measures against the network and its parent company, Walt Disney Company, if they didn't reprimand Kimmel for comments he made in a monologue after Charlie Kirk's assassination. For five days, Kimmel was taken off the air by ABC and Disney.
"Broadcasters ... are entirely different than people that use other forms of communication," Carr told right-wing commentator Benny Johnson in September 2025. "They have a license, granted by us at the FCC, that comes with an obligation to operate in the public interest."
Late-night vs. FCC deja vu
Talarico's interview with Kimmel will be the second time this year that a late-night interview with the Democratic Senate candidate has been taken off the air and forced to air only on YouTube.
In February, Stephen Colbert said CBS lawyers told him that an interview with Talarico could not air on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."
CBS defended its decision, saying that the interview, if broadcast on TV, would trigger the FCC equal-time rule. At the time, Talarico was campaigning for the Democratic nomination for the Senate against Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
During the 15-minute interview on the "Late Night with Stephen Colbert" YouTube channel, Talarico mentioned Kimmel's suspension and criticized what the candidate called "corporate media executives selling out the First Amendment."
What is the equal-time rule?
The rule, part of U.S. Code, has existed since the invention of the radio, which reads: "if any licensee shall permit any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office to use a broadcasting station, he shall afford equal opportunities to all such candidates for that office in the use of such broadcasting station."
However, exceptions exist for newscasts, news interviews and documentaries.
Comedy shows, like "Saturday Night Live," have occasionally seen pushback from the FCC for featuring only one candidate during an election. In 2024, NBC reportedly was forced to air a Trump speech after "SNL" had his election opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, make a cameo appearance.
In 2015, when "SNL" had Trump as a host during the presidential election, three of his Republican opponents, including Lindsey Graham, sent a letter to NBC Universal requesting equal time.
