Where can I watch the Jimmy Kimmel interview with James Talarico?

On the Jimmy Kimmel Live channel on YouTube. Kimmel said the full conversation will be posted there rather than aired, and it is free to watch in the YouTube app, on a smart TV or on the web.

Why is the interview not airing on ABC?

Kimmel said on air that the FCC has threatened the show, the network, its affiliates and local stations. The FCC's newer guidance on the equal-time rule means broadcasters who give airtime to a political candidate may have to offer comparable time to rivals. YouTube is not a licensed broadcaster, so the rule does not apply there.

What is the FCC equal-time rule?

It requires a licensed broadcaster that gives airtime to a qualified political candidate to provide comparable time to rival candidates on request. Late-night talk shows had generally been treated as outside it, but FCC chair Brendan Carr has issued guidance that no longer assumes that exemption.

Has a late-night show done this before?

Yes. In February, CBS lawyers blocked Stephen Colbert from airing an interview with the same candidate, citing the same guidance, and it ran on The Late Show's YouTube channel instead. That video has been watched about 9.5 million times.

Does Thursday's Jimmy Kimmel Live episode still air?

Yes. The broadcast episode goes out as normal on ABC. Only the Talarico segment has been pulled from it and routed to YouTube.

Kimmel Talarico Interview Goes to YouTube, Not ABC

The Jimmy Kimmel Talarico interview will not air on ABC. Kimmel told viewers during Wednesday night's monologue that his sit-down with James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Texas, has been pulled from Thursday's broadcast and will be posted instead on the show's YouTube channel.

For anyone planning to watch, that changes exactly one thing: you will not find it on television. "If you want to learn about a candidate for the Senate tomorrow, you will have to go to the Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel where you will see it in its entirety," Kimmel said. The clip is free, carries no subscription, and runs uncut.

An exterior view of the office building that housed the Federal Communications Commission headquarters in Washington, DC — The Federal Communications Commission's headquarters building in Washington, DC. Image: FCC HQ by The original uploader was Ser Amantio di Nicolao at English Wikipedia., via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Why is the Jimmy Kimmel Talarico interview going to YouTube?

Kimmel's stated reason is broadcast regulation, and specifically the FCC's equal-time rule. On air he said that "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." That is Kimmel's characterisation of the pressure, delivered in his own words on his own programme.

The documented pieces around it are narrower. FCC chair Brendan Carr has issued new guidance on how the equal-time rule applies to talk shows. ABC filed suit against the FCC in August over the agency's review of its broadcast licences. Kimmel also said the decision was taken partly with local ABC affiliates in mind, particularly stations in Texas.

What is the equal-time rule?

It is a broadcast rule, and it only bites on broadcast. In short:

If a licensed broadcaster gives airtime to a qualified political candidate, rival candidates can request comparable time.
Late-night talk shows had generally been treated as falling outside it, alongside news programming.
Under the FCC's newer guidance, that treatment is no longer assumed to hold.
YouTube is not a licensed broadcaster, so none of this applies to a video posted there.

That last point is the whole story. The interview does not have to be shelved — it has to move to a place the rule does not reach.

Has this happened before?

Yes, to the same guest. In February, lawyers for CBS blocked Stephen Colbert from airing his own Talarico interview, citing the same equal-time guidance, and that conversation went out on The Late Show's YouTube channel instead. It has since been watched about 9.5 million times. In published reports, Talarico's campaign raised roughly $2.5 million in the 24 hours after Colbert told viewers he had been barred from broadcasting it.

Two networks, two blocked interviews, one platform absorbing both. That pattern is the part worth watching, and it lines up with a wider argument playing out over how much weight regulators should put on platform feeds — the same fight behind the US objection to UK plans for BBC prominence on YouTube and TikTok.

What does this mean for late-night on YouTube?

Late-night shows already treat YouTube as their real distribution layer. Monologues and interviews are cut into clips and posted nightly, and the clip audience routinely dwarfs the broadcast one. What is new here is a full segment being routed to YouTube first, on purpose, because the rules that govern the airwaves do not govern the site.

YouTube's pull on this kind of programming is not accidental. The platform has been commissioning and funding scripted output directly, including a 200-episode order from Balaji Telefilms in India, and has reportedly been paying creators to stay put rather than sign elsewhere, as covered in our piece on YouTube's offers to creators weighing Netflix deals. It is also increasingly where disputes between distributors get settled in public, as the Disney and YouTube TV settlement showed.

How to watch it

Open the Jimmy Kimmel Live channel on YouTube — in the app, on a smart TV, or on the web — and the full interview will be there. There is no paywall and no ABC login involved. Thursday's broadcast episode continues as normal without the segment.