An interview that Jimmy Kimmel conducted with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico will not air on television amid an ongoing legal dispute between ABC and the Federal Communications Commission, the late-night talk show host said during a Wednesday monologue.
ABC and its parent company Disney sued the FCC on Aug. 18 over accusations that it was threatening broadcast licenses in violation of the First Amendment. The complaint, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleged the FCC had “waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts.”
Kimmel said due to ongoing threats from the FCC against himself, his show and ABC, he would instead upload his interview with Talarico on YouTube.
“And thank goodness we have that,” Kimmel said, “because in the America we live in right now, that is the best that we can do until November, of course.”
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In a statement Thursday, the White House denied that FCC Chair Brendan Carr had threatened Kimmel over his interview with Talarico or any other candidate.
“Jimmy Kimmel is play-acting — as he often does — to create a false narrative about this administration’s policies,” assistant press secretary Davis Ingle said. “Any media outlet blindly amplifying Kimmel’s egocentric delusion should insist on proof. Of which they will find none.”
The FCC did not respond to a request for comment.
FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez said Kimmel’s decision reflects “how far this Administration’s campaign of censorship and control has gone.”
“No host, local affiliate, or network should have to weigh federal retaliation before booking a guest for a newsworthy interview,” Gomez, the commission’s sole Democrat, said in a statement. “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.”
Kimmel and President Donald Trump have shared a contentious relationship stretching back to Trump’s first campaign for office. Since Trump’s return to the presidency last year, the FCC and its chair Brendan Carr have waged a pressure campaign against ABC and Disney that centers around the company’s broadcast licenses.
After the FCC moved to review the broadcast licenses of the network’s owned and operated television stations — years before they were set to expire — ABC accused the commission in a regulatory filing of “retaliating against ABC for the exercise of its First Amendment rights.”
Top Trump administration officials have also targeted the network over its workplace diversity practices, Talarico’s appearance on daytime talk show “The View,” and for remarks Kimmel made in September 2025 after conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death, which resulted in a brief suspension of his show.
A February interview between Talarico and Stephen Colbert, who hosted a late-night show on CBS up until this spring, also went unaired due to the FCC’s enforcement of the “equal time” rule, which dictates that radio and TV broadcasters give equal airtime to competing political candidates if requested.
In April, Trump again called on ABC to fire Kimmel after he joked that first lady Melania Trump had the “glow of an expectant widow.” Both Trumps said the remark was a call to violence before the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, while Kimmel defended the remark as a reference to the age gap in their relationship.
“I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject,” Kimmel said on his show in April following the criticism. “I think a great place to start to dial that back is having a conversation with your husband about it.”
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