The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is doing its goose stepping routine over the late night TV landscape again, with similarly pointless results to the last time they attempted to censor a late night talk show from interviewing a political candidate. Back in February, a lame duck Stephen Colbert on The Late Show said he was told by CBS lawyers “in no uncertain terms” that he could not have Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico on his soon-to-end show, because the FCC was threatening to invoke the so-called “equal time” rule that theoretically requires networks to provide equal air time to political opponents during an election. Colbert objected, but simply posted the interview to The Late Show‘s YouTube channel … where it has yielded 9.5 million views to date, surely more than it ever would have had during its original broadcast. Yesterday, the exact same thing played out yet again with Jimmy Kimmel Live!, with the host explaining to his on-air audience earlier this week that the show wouldn’t be airing its own interview with Talarico after FCC threats. It was instead posted to YouTube late last night, where it has racked up … nearly 2 million views of its own in the last 10 hours.
“Now that [Donald Trump] is president, his FCC has 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,” said Kimmel on the air last night. “Even though, for years, we and every other late night talk show have welcomed numerous candidates, including Donald Trump when he was running.”
The perfectly normal late night TV interview can be seen below.
Kimmel of course has a checkered history with both the FCC and his own parent network within the last calendar year, in a dynamic that originally saw ABC kowtowing to the Trump administration and then eventually going on the attack against the FCC itself. Following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Jimmy Kimmel was briefly suspended by ABC in September of 2025 over some of his mundane comments on the news, following threats from FCC chair Brendan Carr that ABC must take action against its late night host. This naturally caused widespread public condemnation of ABC and accusations that it was catering to government censorship, and Kimmel ended up being brought back to the air in less than a week. He alluded to the event again this year after returning from summer hiatus last week, saying the following directly toward Carr: “This show premiered after the Super Bowl in January 2003. 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’re still here!”
ABC and parent company Disney, meanwhile, sued the FCC in August, alleging that a “retaliatory campaign” had been conducted against ABC over the course of the last year, particularly in an incident where the FCC had ordered ABC to file license renewals for its various TV stations despite years remaining on the current licenses, seemingly a pretext to strip the stations of their licenses.
The Trump administration continues to contend, at the same time, that the FCC isn’t threatening ABC and Kimmel at all, and that the late night host is simply inventing this. According to the official statement from White House spokesperson Davis Ingle: “Jimmy Kimmel is play-acting – as he often does – to create a false narrative about this administration’s policies. Chairman Carr has not threatened him regarding interviewing James Talarico, or any other candidate. Any media outlet blindly amplifying Kimmel’s egocentric delusion should insist on proof. Of which they will find none.”
ABC forced to fold its tent and not run the Kimmel interview w/ Talarico based on patently unlawful megaton threats from the FCC to Kimmel and everyone. It's a story that may fade fast, but it's a total abomination and proof of authoritarian inroads that this could happen in USA. Outfuckingrageous.
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman.bsky.social) 12:13 PM · Sep 10, 2026
At the heart of the FCC’s ability to lean on these networks is the aforementioned “equal time” rule, originally codified in 1934, mostly with the thought of providing equal radio airtime to all the candidates in a race. During the television era, the rule faced legal challenges and was eventually amended by Congress in 1960, with additional language providing exemptions to various types of broadcasters/programs from the equal time rule, primarily for newscasts, interviews and documentaries determined to be “bona fide” news programs. An obviously missing precedent for a later style of programming that would prove to be popular: Late night interview shows hosted by comedians, which tread the line between entertainment and news.
For literally decades following these revisions, the main action taken by the FCC with regards to the rule has been no action. The rule is rarely invoked at all, and even more rarely actually enforced in any way. The exemptions have been readily expanded to suit shows like Meet the Press, or The Tonight Show, or even The Jerry Springer Show. The one part that remains in place is paid airtime for advertisements: If one candidate receives air time for an advertisement, opponents are “entitled to comparable access.” In the case of shows that are undeniably entertainment rather than news, such as SNL, the regrettable hosting of Donald Trump in Nov. 2015 ended up yielding equal time requests from a handful of other Republican primary candidates, who subsequently received “comparable” airtime for their campaigns.
But in a case like that of this week and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the FCC continues to act as if the whole confrontation is happening in 1996, rather than 2026. As if it needs to be said: The FCC’s broadcasting rules do not apply to a digital venue like YouTube, and YouTube is likely where the vast majority of late night TV show viewers under the age of 40 already consume any of this content they choose to engage with. It is not only probable but entirely likely that giving the likes of Jimmy Kimmel a platform to be aggrieved about simply results in far more views for that interview with James Talarico than the interview itself ever would have generated on its own. It’s like the Streisand Effect, for late night TV interviews. Look at the show’s YouTube profile, and you’ll see that the Talarico interview already has more views than almost any other interview Kimmel has conducted in recent memory. One wonders where Kimmel stands with the network itself at this point, given that they’re now embroiled in their own fight against the Trump administration. Recently, rumors had been circulating that Jimmy Kimmel Live! might end when the host’s current contract ends in May of 2027, but ABC pushed back on that reporting.
Kimmel plays Talarico a montage of Trump dragging Paxton for being ugly. Talarico responds, "I'm James Talarico and I approve that message."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 12:53 AM · Sep 11, 2026
Regardless, it is perhaps unsurprising that even past leaders of the FCC see the agency’s more recent action as gross oversteps of its legal authority. Anna Gomez, who was appointed as the FCC Commissioner by Joe Biden in 2023, called the current FCC’s actions a “campaign of censorship and control.”
“No host, local affiliate, or network should have to weigh federal retaliation before booking a guest for a newsworthy interview,” said Gomez. “Any attempt to pressure broadcasters into self-censorship undermines both press freedom and the public’s right to hear from candidates in their communities seeking public office. The FCC has no lawful authority to threaten broadcast licenses over guest bookings or editorial decisions.”
And they also have no power over whether millions and millions of people simply watch said interview on YouTube instead. You’d think the FCC would have a bit more understanding of how video content has been consumed for the last two decades.
