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Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel revealed Wednesday he would be interviewing Texas Senate candidate James Talarico on Thursday under “unusual circumstances.”
“Tomorrow night, I’ll be interviewing James Talarico — tomorrow night, under unusual circumstances,” Kimmel said. “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. I’ve interviewed a lot of political candidates from Hillary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Donald Trump himself.”
Kimmel pointed to his interviews with President Donald Trump in 2015 and in 2016.
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“Now that he’s president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations, based on traditional simple editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they don’t like. And so, out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas who have to deal with this nonsense, my interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television. It will be posted on YouTube instead. It will not be on TV. So if you want to learn about a candidate for the Senate tomorrow, you’ll have to go to the ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ YouTube channel where you will see it in its entirety tomorrow night,” Kimmel said.
Jimmy Kimmel revealed on Wednesday that his interview with James Talarico will only air on YouTube, citing FCC threats during “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on September 9, 2026. (Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty Images; Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
He added, “And thank goodness we have that, because in the America we live in right now, this is the best we can do. Until November, of course. Make sure you register to vote, by the way, because that’s the most important thing you can do.”
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The situation is reminiscent of former late-night host Stephen Colbert’s interview with Talarico ahead of the Texas Senate primary, in which he was competing against Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Colbert’s show, which has since been canceled, did not air the interview with Talarico and only posted it to the show’s YouTube channel in February. Colbert announced at the time that CBS had stopped them from airing the interview.
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“THE LATE SHOW was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico,” the network told Fox News Digital at the time.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico speaks during a campaign rally at the Cailloux Theater on Aug. 31, 2026, in Kerrville, Texas. Talarico is campaigning across the state in a close race against Republican candidate and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ahead of the Nov. 3 general election. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The statement continued, “The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled. THE LATE SHOW decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options.”
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Crockett, who ultimately lost the Senate primary to Talarico, blamed CBS and Colbert’s show.
“We actually received a phone call, and that was a little bit earlier today, and in that call, they explained that they actually told CBS that they could go ahead and move forward with the interview of James Talarico, they just needed to offer me equal time,” Crockett said during a February interview with MS NOW’s Jen Psaki. “I did not get a request from the Colbert show to go on.”
“And so there were a number of options that could be put on the table and frankly, you know, ‘The Late Show’ decided that this was the option and I think that it was a good strategy,” she said.
The lawmaker even suggested that the controversy probably helped Talarico’s campaign.
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Stephen Colbert told viewers that CBS lawyers blocked him from airing his interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, which was shared on his show’s YouTube page. (Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)
“I think it probably gave my opponent the boost he was looking for. So I think it’s probably better that he didn’t get on, and that they went straight to streaming because we know that when we resist, and when we know that it seems like they’re trying to change the rules and bend the knee to this president, that it backfires in historic fashion,” she said.
Kimmel cited FCC threats during his first show back from his summer hiatus as well, addressing FCC Chair Brendan Carr directly.
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“We’ve done 4,000 of these. Which is, it’s a lot of shows,” Kimmel said. “According to the White House, it’s too many shows.”
“There are those who said we would never last this long. There are even those who used the regulatory might of the FCC to unconstitutionally try to make sure we didn’t last this long. But we did it the hard way, Brendan. And we are still here,” Kimmel said.
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Kimmel referenced his show’s brief suspension and ongoing clash with Carr in 2025.
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The FCC and Disney did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
