Jimmy Kimmel Didn't Air Talarico Interview Over Fear of FCC 'Equal Time' Threats

For the second time this year, Talarico appeared on a late-night show only to be bumped in response to federal threats.

For the second time this year, James Talarico, the Texas Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, appeared on a late-night talk show only to get bumped from the nightly broadcast.

In each case, both the hosts and the network seemingly buckled to pressure from President Donald Trump and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). And just like in that earlier case, it provides a perfect example of why we should abolish the equal time rule.

"I'll be interviewing James Talarico tomorrow night under unusual circumstances," Jimmy Kimmel said Wednesday on his ABC talk show. But the TV audience would not see the segment because of fears that by airing it, ABC's affiliates could run afoul of the equal opportunities requirement, better known as the equal time rule.

The equal time rule states that if a "legally qualified candidate for any public office" appears on a broadcast network in the weeks leading up to the election, then the network must "afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates for that office."

The rule exempts "bona fide" news coverage, like interviews or newscasts, and the FCC had extended "bona fide" exemptions to chat shows like Kimmel's since 1984. But in January of this year, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr issued a directive that a broadcast could not be exempt if it was "motivated by partisan purposes."

Kimmel noted on Wednesday that he had interviewed numerous candidates for office throughout his show's two-decade run, including Trump himself. "At the time, when he was the one sitting next to me, he seemed to have no problem with the idea of talk show hosts interviewing candidates," Kimmel said.

Indeed, Trump appeared on Kimmel's show twice during his first run for the presidency, first in December 2015 and again in May 2016 just two months before the Republican Party officially made him their presidential nominee.

But "now that he's 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," Kimmel continued. "And so out of consideration for all 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; it will be posted on YouTube instead."

"The FCC wants to make it impossible for me to interview candidates by requiring that I interview every candidate on the ballot who asks for equal time," Kimmel noted the following night. Not only would he have to offer an interview to Talarico's Republican opponent, embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton—"which, by the way, I would love to do, call me," Kimmel quipped—but "our affiliates in Texas would have to give equal time to as many candidates as there are on the ballot." BallotPedia lists seven total candidates in Talarico's race.

Kimmel's interview with Talarico hit the show's YouTube channel Thursday night. On a typical night, Kimmel's broadcast averages around 1.5 million viewers, while the YouTube video racked up more than 3.6 million views in its first 16 hours.

If you have déjà vu, it's because this wasn't even the first time this happened: Talarico appeared on Stephen Colbert's CBS late-night show in February, only for the interview to be shunted to YouTube and streaming services when the network feared FCC reprisal.

The Trump administration disputes Kimmel's story. "Jimmy Kimmel is play-acting—as he often does—to create a false narrative about this administration's policies," White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told The Wall Street Journal. "Chairman Carr has not threatened him regarding interviewing James Talarico, or any other candidate."

That specificity is important, as Carr has threatened Kimmel numerous times. Last year, Carr infamously got Kimmel pulled from the air for a week after the host made an intemperate joke about the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Carr told podcaster Benny Johnson, warning broadcasters to "find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel" or face FCC reprisal.

Carr has also threatened ABC on this very subject. Earlier this year, after Talarico appeared on ABC daytime chat show The View, Carr threatened to revoke the show's equal time exemption, and the FCC even directed the ABC affiliate in Houston to file "a petition for declaratory ruling" on whether the interview violated the equal time rule.

And then, of course, the FCC called in ABC's affiliate licenses for review years ahead of schedule, which one free speech organization called "illegal jawboning." Taken together, these examples suggest that Carr treats the FCC's purview as primarily the defenders of Trump's feelings. Trump, of course, has also criticized Kimmel repeatedly over the years and called for him to be fired.

The entire affair demonstrates why the equal time rule is so outdated and ripe to be abolished.

The rule originated in the age of radio, and it came to include TV at a time when that consisted of only a handful of broadcast networks. Since there were only a small number of outlets broadcasting over theoretically finite airwaves, the government required that each network serve "the public interest."

Now, of course, there have never been more ways to access information, with innumerable cable channels, social media platforms, streaming services, and video sites like YouTube. And unlike the broadcast networks, none of those are subject to the FCC's equal time rule.

In fact, at the time of this writing, Kimmel's YouTube channel has over 22 million subscribers and 15.6 billion total views across 8,000 videos—an average of 2 million views per video. And that's to say nothing of how many people watch clips from the show on its social media channels, like Instagram or TikTok.

The suggestion that broadcasters still have a responsibility to present a perfectly balanced roster of guests—or at least, as many guests as the administration in power deems balanced—is not only outdated, it's offensive to America's free speech principles.

No TV show should be required to host any particular guest, nor should they be forbidden from having someone on. The equal time rule should be abolished.