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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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Jimmy Kimmel said his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico will not air on his show on Thursday night because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had threatened him, his show, ABC and its affiliates.
During his Wednesday night monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host said he will interview Talarico on Thursday night, but that it won’t air on television. Instead, he told viewers they can watch it on YouTube.
“His [President Donald Trump's] FCC 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," Kimmel said.
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Talarico addressed the decision in an interview with MS NOW's Symone Sanders Townsend on Thursday, saying he had only recently learned that his interview with Kimmel would not air on ABC.
“I guess we’ll see what happens tonight,” Talarico said. “But government censorship should be a concern to all of us, regardless of our political party.”
Talarico said that if the interview is not broadcast on television, he would consider it censorship.
“Absolutely, I think it's the most dangerous form of cancel culture,” he said, adding that he remained hopeful it would air.
Possible Threat To ABC Licenses
Kimmel said the decision not to air the interview with Talarico on television was made out of concerns the FCC would threaten ABC station licenses.
“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,” he said. “It will be posted on YouTube instead.”
Newsweek has contacted ABC, the FCC, the White House and Talarico’s campaign for comment via emails sent outside regular business hours.
The decision comes after late-night host Stephen Colbert said in February that CBS did not allow him to air an interview with Talarico on The Late Show over concerns about the FCC's "equal time" rules, prompting him to post it on the show's YouTube channel instead. CBS later denied barring Colbert from airing the interview.
In the monologue, Kimmel earlier said that Republicans are “very nervous” about November’s midterm elections. “And rightly so. They’re in danger of losing a Senate seat in Texas of all places,” Kimmel said.
Polls show Talarico is narrowly leading his Republican opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, giving Democrats their best chance in years of winning a Senate race in reliably red Texas. The race could be crucial as Republicans fight to preserve their slim majority in the Senate, with Democrats needing to pick up four seats to win control of the chamber.
What Jimmy Kimmel Said
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“You know, for a lot of years, for the whole 20-plus years of our show, in fact, I’ve been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all, just like Letterman did, Leno did, Arsenio, et cetera, et cetera. I’ve interviewed a lot of political candidates from Hillary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Donald Trump himself,” he said.
Kimmel recalled his 2015 interview with Trump, who was running for president.
“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,” Kimmel said. He added that Trump was “very eager” to return for another interview, which he did shortly before he became the Republican nominee in 2016, he added.
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“But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed now that he is president,” Kimmel said. “His FCC 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.”
Kimmel said that “out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas who would have to deal with this nonsense,” his interview with Talarico will not air on television and will be posted on YouTube instead.
“So if you want to learn about a candidate for the Senate tomorrow, you will have to go to the Jimmy Kimmel Live! YouTube channel, where you will see it in its entirety,” he said.
“And thank goodness we have that, because in the America we live in right now, that is the best that we can do until November, of course. Make sure you’re registered to vote, by the way, because that’s the most important thing you can do.”
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Kimmel’s History With the Trump Administration
Kimmel, a frequent Trump critic, has repeatedly faced calls to be fired by the president.
He was suspended by ABC in September last year, and some of the network’s affiliates said they would take him off the air over a comment following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, moves that were encouraged by Trump’s FCC chairman, Brendan Carr.
Following a public outcry, ABC lifted the suspension, and Kimmel returned with much stronger ratings than he had before. In December, ABC signed Kimmel to a one-year contract extension that will keep him on the air until May 2027.
Then in April, the president and Melania Trump both called for ABC to fire Kimmel on Monday after a joke in which he described the first lady as having “the glow of an expectant widow.” The remark came during a routine on Kimmel’s show two nights before a gunman stormed the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Kimmel later said the joke was about the couple’s age difference and “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.”
Shortly afterward, Carr, an ally of Trump, ordered an early review of eight licenses owned by ABC. ABC and its parent company sued the FCC in August, alleging the Trump administration is waging a “retaliatory campaign” against ABC because it disapproves of what the network broadcasts.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Gray R. Thomas
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