Jimmy Kimmel will interview Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico only on YouTube, not on ABC's broadcast show, after threats from the Trump-era Federal Communications Commission left affiliate stations wary of legal risk. The move highlights growing pressure from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Disney-owned ABC, which briefly suspended Kimmel last year over "news distortion" claims and has since faced an early license review of all eight ABC-owned stations and a probe into The View's political interviews.

Kimmel, whose show had interviewed candidates without incident for over 20 years, said "something has changed" under the current FCC. The commission ordered broadcasters in January to apply equal-time rules to talk shows deemed "motivated by partisan purposes," a shift from historical exemptions, though similar scrutiny has not been applied to conservative talk radio. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the panel's sole Democrat, condemned the pressure as unlawful censorship, while a similar incident occurred in February when Stephen Colbert said CBS blocked his own Talarico interview, which he also moved to YouTube.