Key facts
- Jimmy Kimmel will air an interview with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico on his YouTube channel.
- The interview will not be broadcast on ABC due to threats from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
- The FCC, led by Republicans, ruled in January that talk shows are not "bona fide" news programs.
- This ruling means talk shows are subject to equal time rules requiring airtime for opposing candidates.
- Kimmel noted that talk shows have historically been exempt from these rules when interviewing political candidates.
ABC late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said an interview with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, scheduled for Thursday, will be released on YouTube instead of airing on the network. Kimmel cited threats from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the reason for the decision.
In January, the Republican-led FCC declared that daytime and late-night TV talk shows would no longer be classified as "bona fide" news programs. This reclassification means these shows are subject to equal time rules, which mandate that opposing candidates must be given equivalent airtime. Kimmel pointed out that for decades, talk shows had been permitted to interview political candidates without facing these regulations.