Jimmy Kimmel told his audience Wednesday night that his interview with James Talarico, the Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Texas, will not air on ABC. He tapes it Thursday. He posts it to YouTube instead, "where you will see it in its entirety."
"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 said in the monologue TheWrap carried. He kept the interview off the air "out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas who would have to deal with this nonsense."
Kimmel interviewed candidate Trump on the same couch in 2015. Trump "seemed to have no problem with the idea of talk show hosts interviewing candidates," Kimmel said. "Something has changed."
Talarico changed it. The former schoolteacher trails Ken Paxton, Texas's attorney general, 47 to 46 in Emerson College's August poll of 1,000 likely voters — inside its three-point margin — and the Cook Political Report rates the seat a Toss Up. Paxton, whom Trump backed over the sitting senator in May's runoff, told a rally this month: "If we lose Texas, we've lost the country." Early voting opens Monday, October 19.
The FCC never had to write Kimmel a letter. Carr's April order on Disney did the job — the date, the deadline and the lawsuit are below.
