By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) – ABC late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said an interview with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico on Thursday will air on YouTube and not during the network broadcast, citing threats from the Federal Communications Commission.
In January, the Republican-led FCC said that daytime and late-night TV talk shows are no longer considered “bona fide” news programs that are exempt from equal time rules that require them to give airtime to opposing candidates.
Kimmel noted that for decades talk shows have been free to interview political candidates without being subject to those rules.
Talarico is running in Texas against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in a race that could decide control of the U.S. Senate in November.
Kimmel noted that he had previously interviewed U.S. President Donald Trump as a candidate in 2016.
“Now that he is president, his FCC 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’t like,” Kimmel said on Wednesday’s broadcast.
ABC declined to comment. The FCC did not immediately comment.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr ordered early reviews in April of Disney’s eight company-owned ABC stations, even though the license renewals were not scheduled to be considered before October 2028. The FCC had not ordered an early review in more than 50 years before April. The reviews were ordered a day after Trump urged ABC to fire Kimmel. Disney filed suit to block the early reviews in August, saying Trump is trying to punish the network over its content.
Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez condemned the FCC for saying the agency had intimidated ABC into not airing it.
“The FCC has no lawful authority to threaten broadcast licenses over guest bookings or editorial decisions,” Gomez said. The FCC is also investigating ABC daytime talk show “The View,” which discusses U.S. politics, after saying it is subject to the equal time rules following an interview with Talarico in January. Disney said that since February the program has not invited any political candidates to appear, citing the FCC’s “pressure campaign.” In February, former CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert said the network’s lawyers barred him from airing an interview with Talarico on his show and instead aired it on YouTube, where it has been seen more than 9.5 million times. Trump has repeatedly urged broadcasters to drop comedy or news programs he dislikes, or which have joked about or criticized him or his administration. He has also called on the FCC to strip stations of licenses after criticizing news and other programming. Broadcast stations need FCC licenses to use public airwaves. While license revocations are extremely rare, critics say the threat of losing a license can pressure broadcasters and raise concerns about government interference in editorial and programming decisions. Networks have broad First Amendment protections over programming choices.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Sharon Singleton and Nick Zieminski)
