The FCC Moves A Texas Senate Interview To YouTube

LOS ANGELES—Jimmy Kimmel interviewed Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico on Thursday and kept the conversation off broadcast television, allowing the program to protect free editorial judgment by moving it beyond the Federal Communications Commission’s broadcast jurisdiction.

Kimmel said the FCC had threatened his show, ABC, its affiliates and local stations over candidate bookings. The commission did not respond to the Texas Tribune’s request for comment. Kimmel said the segment would appear on YouTube instead, where it attracted more than 2.2 million views during its first 12 hours online.

Federal law generally requires broadcasters that give one legally qualified candidate airtime to offer comparable opportunities to opponents. Bona fide news interviews have long received an exemption. In January, the FCC’s Media Bureau said daytime and late-night programs should not assume that exemption automatically and that stations must evaluate each appearance individually.

That guidance placed the immediate compliance risk on local licensees rather than the online platform. Kimmel said he withheld the television segment out of consideration for ABC affiliates, particularly stations in Texas. The candidate still received the interview, the audience still received the video and the broadcast network successfully avoided broadcasting it.

Talarico is running against Republican nominee Ken Paxton in a competitive statewide race. The FCC has not announced a finding that this particular interview violated equal-time law. The episode instead produced a practical division of modern media: television carried the warning, and the internet carried the interview.