James Talarico, the Democratic candidate running for senator in Texas, has spoken out after ABC pulled his sit-down with Jimmy Kimmel over FCC concerns. The interview will instead be posted to the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” YouTube channel on Thursday night.
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“Government censorship should be a concern to all of us, regardless of our political party,” Talarico told MS NOW, calling the FCC’s threats against certain broadcast programs (including ABC’s “The View”) “the most dangerous form of cancel culture.”
“People at the top, powerful politicians, powerful media executives, censoring what we watch, what we read, what we say,” Talarico continued. “That, again, should be a concern to everyone who believes in the First Amendment and believes in the freedom of speech.”
He told Symone Sanders Townsend of MS NOW’s “The Weeknight” that he still has hope ABC will air the Kimmel interview across its broadcast channels. “I’m still hopeful that we can have this interview on the air,” he said. “So we’ll see what happens tonight.
Kimmel announced on his show Wednesday night that ABC had decided to preempt his chat with Talarico because of concerns about Trump’s FCC, which is led by Brendan Carr. The government agency is currently locked in a dispute with ABC over whether “The View” qualifies as a “bona fide news program” exempt from the “equal time” rule. The FCC also played a key role in Kimmel’s brief suspension in 2025 over Charlie Kirk comments.
“Out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas who would have to deal with this nonsense, my interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television,” Kimmel said on his show Wednesday night.
It’s not the first time a late-night show has preempted an interview with the Texas Senate candidate. In February, Stephen Colbert said CBS executives pulled his interview with Talarico from air over concerns about violating the equal time rule, which requires broadcast stations to give equal time to political candidates when they appear on-air. While there are exemptions to the rule, Trump’s FCC has been aggressive about clamping down on broadcast programs perceived as liberal. (Before the ABC drama, the agency went after “Saturday Night Live” over a brief cameo by Kamala Harris.)
Ultimately, Colbert put his Talarico interview on YouTube, with the clip garnering 9.5 million views. The Talarico campaign raised $2.5 million in the 24 hours after Colbert revealed he was barred from airing the interview.