Jimmy Kimmel’s interview with Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talaricoskipped television and went straight to YouTube — quickly racking up nearly 6 million views.
The interview, posted to the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” YouTube channel on Sept. 10, had garnered about 5.8 million views by early morning Sept. 12, making it one of the show’s standout recent uploads.
Kimmel said he chose not to air the interview on ABC amid concerns about Federal Communications Commissionrules governing appearances by political candidates. Instead, the late-night host uploaded his conversation with Talarico, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, to YouTube.
During the Talarico interview, Kimmel noted that the Texas Democrat encountered a similar situation earlier
this year.
Talarico’s February interview with Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” was released on YouTube rather than broadcast on CBS. At the time, Colbert said the network’s lawyers had raised concerns that airing the interview could trigger the FCC’s equal-opportunities rule for political candidates.
Under federal law, broadcast stations that allow a legally qualified political candidate to use their facilities generally must provide comparable opportunities to opposing candidates, although certain bona fide news programming is exempt.
In a public notice released in January, the FCC issued guidance on equal opportunities for political candidates, saying the law and the agency’s rules are intended to ensure that “no legally qualified candidate for office is unfairly given less access to the public airwaves than their opponent.”
“Well, they’re worried that we’re going to win this race in Texas,” Talarico said in the interview with Kimmel. “We’re not just going up against the most corrupt politician in Texas. We’re going up against this entire corrupt system.”
Kimmel had announced a day earlier that the Talarico interview would not air on ABC, saying he instead planned to make it available online.
Watch Talarico on Jimmy Kimmel YouTube
Watch the interview below.
Natassia Paloma may be reached at npaloma@gannett.com, @NatassiaPaloma on X, natassia_paloma on Instagram, and Natassia Paloma on Facebook.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Talarico's Jimmy Kimmel interview racks up nearly 6M views on YouTube
