ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel said his interview with Texas Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico will not be aired on the network, citing increasing intrusions from the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over “equal time” rules for political candidates.
Talarico is running against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in Texas in a race that could take control of the U.S. Senate in November.
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On Wednesday’s broadcast, Kimmel said he would be interviewing Talarico under “unusual circumstances,” adding that throughout his show, which has been running for more than 20 years, he “has had no problem interviewing Americans who are running for public office.”
But the Republican-led FCC announced in January that daytime and late-night TV talk shows would no longer be considered “real” news programs and would be exempted from equal-time rules that require them to give airtime to opponents.
Kimmel noted that talk shows have freely interviewed political candidates for decades without following these rules, including interviewing President Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“Now that he’s president,[Trump’s]FCC has blackmailed me, blackmailed our show, blackmailed our network ABC, our affiliate stations, our local stations, based on a simple traditional editorial decision: booking a guest that they thought they wouldn’t like,” Kimmel said.
Talarico’s interview will instead be published on YouTube on Thursday.
Cook Political Report and the University of Virginia Center for Politics call the Texas Senate race a close race. A poll conducted in August by the Barbara Jordan Center for Public Policy Research and Research at Texas Southern University showed Mr. Talarico narrowly leading Mr. Paxton among likely voters, 47% to 45%.
Republicans are stepping up efforts to secure seats. Earlier this week, MAGA Inc., a political group allied with Mr. Trump, spent $10 million on advertising against Mr. Talarico, in what is said to be the first ad buy by Mr. Trump’s wealthy political machine for the general election.
The move highlights how Texas, usually the party’s safest stronghold, has emerged as an Achilles heel in Republicans’ efforts to hold on to the Senate.
Talarico, 37, is a former public school teacher who has built his political identity around a progressive interpretation of Christianity.
Democrats see the eighth-generation Texan as a promising tool to break the state’s decades-long Senate drought. Texas has not elected a Democrat to Congress since 1988.
The ABC episode is unprecedented in its timing as Republicans converge on Dallas for the closing ceremonies of the party’s highly unconventional midterm convention, with the president commanding the spotlight in what many observers are calling a “Trump-a-Palooza” parade in an effort to energize the party’s base.
FCC becomes a pressure point
Over the past year, shows such as The View, Saturday Night Live and Jimmy Kimmel Live! have been subject to increased oversight by the FCC over whether their political coverage and candidate appearances comply with federal equal time rules.
Critics say expanding the network’s involvement in programming decisions risks undermining its editorial independence.
That instability is further exacerbated by the strengthening of US media ownership. In August, the FCC voted to eliminate a 39% cap on local TV ownership, a move that critics warn could further concentrate control of the nation’s broadcast news in the hands of fewer companies. This was followed by changes to the equal time rule in January.
This change has already ensnared Talarico.
The FCC launched an investigation into his appearance on ABC’s The View in February, but CBS refused to air an interview he recorded for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Colbert later posted the interview online.
In April, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr ordered an expedited review of ABC’s eight station licenses. This was an unusual move considering that the license was not due for renewal until 2028.
The network’s parent companies, Disney and ABC, argued that the investigation threatens protected speech and overturns years of constitutional precedent, and separately accused the FCC of using its regulatory powers to intimidate news organizations critical of President Trump.
As early as last September, intimidation tactics against Kimmel had leapt from regulatory threats to targeted retaliation, as ABC put Kimmel’s show on indefinite hiatus and brought it back six days later.
This comes after Kimmel’s comments about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk drew criticism from FCC chief Kerr, who asked local stations not to air the program.
