{"id":432275,"date":"2026-09-11T00:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T00:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/432275\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T00:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T00:16:14","slug":"jimmy-kimmel-says-show-wont-air-james-talarico-interview-on-tv-citing-fcc-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/432275\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel says show won\u2019t air James Talarico interview on TV, citing FCC threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Kimmel announced Wednesday night that his show would not air his upcoming interview with Texas\u2019 Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico on television, citing the Trump administration\u2019s<\/a> threats against ABC.<\/p>\n

Kimmel said<\/a> that during President Donald Trump\u2019s administration, the Federal Communications Commission \u201chas 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\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOut 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The interview, set for Thursday, will be posted on the YouTube channel for \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d instead, he said. Talarico, a Democratic state representative in Texas, is locked in a competitive Senate race with Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton.<\/p>\n

\"DemocraticDemocratic Senate candidate James Talarico.Brandon Bell \/ Getty Images file<\/p>\n

The Talarico campaign and the FCC did not immediately respond to NBC News\u2019 request for comment. ABC Entertainment declined to comment.<\/p>\n

During an interview with MS NOW that aired Thursday evening, Talarico said \u201cabsolutely\u201d when asked whether he thought he was being censored.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s the most dangerous form of cancel culture. People at the top, powerful politicians, powerful media executives, censoring what we watch, what we read, what we what we say, and that again should be a concern to everyone who believes in the First Amendment and believes in the freedom of speech,\u201d Talarico said, adding that he was \u201cstill hopeful\u201d ABC would air the interview.<\/p>\n

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, condemned \u201cFCC intimidation\u201d in a statement reacting to Kimmel\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo host, local affiliate, or network should have to weigh federal retaliation before booking a guest for a newsworthy interview,\u201d Gomez said in the statement. \u201cAny attempt to pressure broadcasters into self-censorship undermines both press freedom and the public\u2019s right to hear from candidates in their communities seeking public office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimmel\u2019s announcement marks the latest apparent instance in which pressure from the administration has affected content aired on an entertainment show. Stephen Colbert said in February<\/a> that CBS did not air his interview with Talarico out of fear of the FCC.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network\u2019s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast,\u201d Colbert said at the time.<\/p>\n

CBS said in a February statement that \u201cthe show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has publicly targeted Kimmel in the past, calling multiple times for the comedian to be fired.<\/p>\n

About a year ago, ABC pulled Kimmel\u2019s show following the comedian\u2019s comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September of last year. The show returned nearly a week later<\/a>, and Kimmel said in his monologue that \u201cit was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FCC, under Chairman Brendan Carr, announced in April<\/a> that Disney\u2019s eight local television stations owned and operated by ABC needed to file broadcast license renewals early. The Walt Disney Co. sued over the decision last month.<\/p>\n

In January, the FCC issued a memo <\/a>saying that late-night and daytime talk shows must adhere to the equal time rule, which requires broadcasters to offer equal opportunities to other qualified candidates who are running for the same office. The memo marked a change in the FCC\u2019s position. Twenty years earlier, a decision found that late-night and daytime talk shows were exempt from the rule.<\/p>\n

Kimmel interviewed Trump himself in 2015, when he was running for president. Kimmel recalled the interview on his show Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 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,\u201d he said. \u201cIn fact, he was very eager to come back for another interview, which he did just before he became the nominee in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for some reason, and I can\u2019t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed,\u201d he said, tongue in cheek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel announced Wednesday night that his show would not air his upcoming interview with Texas\u2019 Democratic Senate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-432275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}