Add The New York Post on Google Jimmy Kimmel claimed ABC has relegated his interview with Dem Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico to YouTube, opting not to air it on the TV due to threats from President Trump’s Federal Communications Commission.
The late-night funnyman told his Wednesday night audience that the “unusual circumstances” were decided after the FCC “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 said for the entire 23 years “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” has been on television, he has been able to interview Americans running for office with no problem, just like late-night icons David Letterman, Jay Leno and Arsenio Hall did.
“I interviewed Donald Trump when he was running for president in 2015, and at that 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. In fact, he was very eager to come back for another interview, which he did just before he became the nominee in 2016,” Kimmel said.
“But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed,” he added.
ABC declined to comment. The FCC did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
In February, Stephen Colbert – a Trump-hating comedian who was booted from CBS in May – similarly said the network’s lawyers had blocked his own interview with Talarico, accusing the FCC of trying to muzzle anti-Trump voices. It was posted on his show’s YouTube channel.
ABC has been locked in a battle with the FCC for more than a year, most recently suing the agency in August for an alleged “retaliatory campaign” that sought to silence the network’s shows by threatening its local broadcast licenses.
Last week, the FCC asked a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit, insisting that its early review of ABC’s licenses – including channels in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – has nothing to do with the anti-Trump hosts of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” or “The View.”
The fight dates back to March 2025, when FCC Chair Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, launched a probe into whether ABC’s parent company Disney was still engaging in DEI practices that the Trump administration was trying to squash.
Then in January, the FCC released new guidance arguing that entertainment talk shows should abide by the same “equal time” rules as broadcast news stations. That implies ABC shows like “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The View” – both of which frequently bash Trump – would be forced to offer equal airtime to all candidates running for political office.
Tensions escalated in April, when Carr launched a renewal process of eight ABC licenses a year ahead of schedule, accusing the network of failing to comply with its DEI investigation.
At the same time, Carr and Trump repeatedly called for ABC to fire Kimmel over remarks he made about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as well as a joke he made about First Lady Melania Trump looking like “an expectant widow” after two assasination attempts on the president.
In September 2025, ABC briefly pulled Kimmel’s show off the air after he faced heated backlash for saying “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them” to “score political points.”
Trump and Kimmel have repeatedly traded barbs over the past decade, with the president saying Kimmel has “zero talent” and poor ratings and is the worst late-night host on television.
Kimmel didn’t hide his disdain for Trump on Wednesday, telling audience members that the network’s YouTube channel is a saving grace.
“Thank goodness we have that, because in the America we live in right now, that is the best that we can do — until November, of course. Make sure you register to vote,” he said.
