# FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Accuses James Talarico Of Running A “Hoax” With Jimmy Kimmel Sit Down; YouTube Interview Nears 7 Million Views

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/fcc-chairman-brendan-carr-accuses-james-talarico-of-running-a-hoax-with-jimmy-kimmel-sit-down-youtube-interview-nears-7-million-views/
- Published: 2026-09-13T15:37:05+00:00
- Updated: 2026-09-13T21:44:00+00:00
- Original publisher: Deadline
- Original article: https://deadline.com/2026/09/jimmy-kimmel-james-talarico-fcc-1237100486/
- Topics: Business, Markets, Trending, Weird & Viral

## Key points

- Carr accused Talarico of staging a "hoax" over his YouTube-only Kimmel interview
- Interview neared 7 million YouTube views amid FCC equal time dispute
- Talarico calls it censorship; White House denies any threat was made to Kimmel

## Summary

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has publicly accused Texas Senate candidate James Talarico of running a "hoax" with his interview on Jimmy Kimmel's show, which aired only on YouTube rather than being broadcast on ABC because of the FCC's tightened enforcement of the equal time rule. In a Saturday evening post on X, Carr claimed Talarico was repeating a stunt he pulled with Stephen Colbert earlier in the year purely to generate "clicks and donations", accompanying his remarks with a mocking meme, while defending the rule as intended to promote "more speech, not less". The episode capped weeks of tension between the Trump-appointed regulator and late-night broadcasters, after the FCC issued guidance in January suggesting talk shows may not be exempt from equal time requirements and launched an investigation into ABC's The View over an earlier Talarico appearance.

The Kimmel interview had reached 6.8 million YouTube views by Saturday evening, closing in on 7 million, while a similar Colbert interview with Talarico in February had drawn 9.6 million views, in both cases far exceeding the shows' normal broadcast audiences. Talarico has described the situation as government censorship and "cancel culture", while Kimmel said the FCC was effectively dictating his show's editorial decisions. The White House disputed that any threat had been made against Kimmel, and Carr argued the equal time statute simply requires broadcasters to offer comparable airtime rather than barring any candidate interviews, citing Senator Ted Cruz's appearance on ESPN's College GameDay as a separate case the rule does not cover.

## Coverage

- [Deadline: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Accuses James Talarico Of Running A “Hoax” With Jimmy Kimmel Sit Down; YouTube Interview Nears 7 Million Views](https://deadline.com/2026/09/jimmy-kimmel-james-talarico-fcc-1237100486/)
- [Variety: FCC Chairman Slams James Talarico as Running a ‘Hoax’ With Jimmy Kimmel Interview, Which ABC Punted to YouTube, to Get ‘Clicks and Donations’](https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/fcc-chairman-talarico-hoax-jimmy-kimmel-youtube-1236860262/)

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.