The Federal Communications Commission's rules require entertainment-oriented talk shows to offer equal airtime to candidates running for the same office.

For Texas voters: The Jimmy Kimmel interview of Democratic U.S. senate candidate James Talarico of Texas that the FCC refused to allow broadcast of on Kimmel’s late night show this week. https://youtu.be/WLDE9LrGpNk?is=JEevXSYsHWVtbrdh #jamestalarico #texas

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