Jimmy Kimmel has been forced to take an unusual step to launch his show’s new episode featuring James Talarico.
The 58-year-old American TV host and comedian is all set to interview Democratic Senate candidate Talarico for the Thursday, September 10 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. However, unlike other episodes, the latest one will not be aired on ABC. Instead, it will be posted on the host’s YouTube channel due to a major threat.
During his Wednesday, September 9 monologue, Kimmel revealed that while Talarico would appear for an interview at the studio, viewers at home will not be able to watch it on broadcast television as a politically motivated Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has threatened to cancel ABC station licenses over Talarico’s interview.
In order to still move forward with the interview and to bring it to the audiences, Jimmy Kimmel took a surprising decision, revealing an unusual fate for the episode that it will be uploaded on his official YouTube channel for viewers to watch.
“Out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas who would have to deal with this nonsense, my interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television. It will be posted on YouTube instead. It will not be on TV,” he said.
“Tomorrow night, I’ll be interviewing James Talarico — tomorrow night, under unusual circumstances,” Kimmel stated.
He continued, “You know, for a lot of years, for the whole 20-plus years of our show, in fact, I’ve been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all, just like Letterman did, Leno did, Arsenio, et cetera, et cetera. I’ve interviewed a lot of political candidates from Hillary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Donald Trump himself.”
The host went on to highlight that he interviewed Trump when he was running for president in 2015.
“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,” he noted, adding that the President was “very eager” to return before he became the nominee in 2016.
Kimmel blasted, “But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed now that he is president.”
Slamming FCC’s threats during Trump’s tenure, Kimmel stated 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.”
It is pertinent to mention that James Talarico is facing a close race in Texas against state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Moreover, Democrats have not won a national seat in Texas in more than three decades.
