The FCC's requirement for equal airtime for candidates running for the same office has led to the decision to post Jimmy Kimmel's interview with James Talarico on YouTube instead of broadcasting it on television.

Kimmel says interview with James Talarico won't air under FCC pressure, will be on YouTube. Colbert put an interview with Talarico on YouTube after Trump Admin/FCC for the same reason. #USPol Anna Gomez, the FCC's sole Democrat, said in a Thursday statement on social media that Kimmel’s decision to keep the interview off-air “shows just how far this Administration’s campaign of censorship and control has gone.” https://apnews.com/article/trump-jimmy-kimmel-television-fcc-d3b6ccd636d8b94bd9485e7082438046

Jimmy Kimmel says his interview with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico will stream on YouTube, not broadcast TV, due to ABC's fight with the FCC (Abid Rahman/The Hollywood Reporter) https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/jimmy-kimmel-james-talarico-interview-fcc-brendan-carr-1236696255/ http://mediagazer.com/260910/p3#a260910p3

Jimmy Kimmel told Wednesday night’s “Live” audience that his Thursday interview with James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee from Texas, would not air on television, but would instead be posted on YouTube. The “unusual circumstances” of the interview, Kimmel said, were prompted by the Federal Communications Commission’s actions under Trump, which Kimmel said had “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.” Under guidance released in January,the F.C.C. warned that entertainment-oriented talk shows carried on local TV stations were required to offer equal airtime to candidates running for the same office. “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, etc. etc.,” Jimmy Kimmel said. “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" https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/arts/television/jimmy-kimmel-james-talarico-interview.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share