Jimmy Kimmel Makes Major Change to Show After FCC Threat
Jimmy Kimmel Makes Major Change to Show After FCC Threat
Martin HolmesThu, September 10, 2026 at 12:19 PM UTC
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Jimmy Kimmel - Jimmy Kimmel Live! YouTube
Jimmy Kimmel is again facing the wrath of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and, as a result, will have to air his interview with James Talarico, the Democratic nominee in the 2026 U.S. Senate election in Texas, on YouTube.
The late-night host revealed the news on Wednesday’s (September 9) edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, explaining that he’ll interview Talarico on Thursday (September 10) “under unusual circumstances.” This is because FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s new guidelines require late-night shows to follow the “equal time” rule for political candidates.
“For the whole 20-plus years of our show, I’ve been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all, just like [David] Letterman did, [Jay] Leno did, Arsenio [Hall], etc,” Kimmel said. “I’ve interviewed a lot of political candidates, from Hillary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Donald Trump himself.”
Kimmel noted, “I interviewed Donald Trump when he was running for president in 2015, and 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 [Republican presidential] nominee in 2016.”
“But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed,” the comedian added. “Now that he’s president, 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’s show was briefly taken off the air last September after the host made a joke about the Charlie Kirk assassination. This kickstarted the FCC’s intense scrutiny of ABC, including a call for a review of the eight Disney-owned ABC stations’ broadcast licenses. Trump himself called for ABC to fire Kimmel.
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On Wednesday’s show, Kimmel said, “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. It will be posted on YouTube instead.”
He added, “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.”
“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,” Kimmel said, referring to the upcoming midterm elections. “Make sure you register to vote, by the way, because that’s the most important thing you can do.”
Kimmel isn’t the first late-night host to have his Talarico interview bumped from TV to online. Back in February, Stephen Colbert announced that CBS lawyers wouldn’t let him broadcast his interview with Talarico on The Late Show. Instead, Colbert’s interview with the Texas Senate candidate aired in full on The Late Show YouTube channel.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Weeknights, 11:35/10:35c, ABC
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
