Jimmy Kimmel is getting the last laugh.
After the late-night host was allegedly prevented from airing an interview with Texas Democrat James Talarico, he posted the conversation on social media instead.
Now, the interview has become Jimmy Kimmel Live’s most-watched interview on YouTube in two years. Within five days of posting the 21-minute conversation on YouTube, Kimmel amassed more than 11 million views.
Former late-night host Stephen Colbert was also barred from featuring Talarico, the 38-year-old Democratic rising star, in February for the same reason. The CBS host sidestepped the policy by posting their conversation on YouTube and, according to LateNighter, garnered over 9.6 million views over six months. The clip also became Colbert’s most-watched YouTube video in three years.
At the time, Colbert said, “I was told in some uncertain terms that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention not having him on. And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this,” slamming his former network, CBS.
Kimmel’s views skyrocketed past his colleague’s in far less time. In its first 24 hours, the video garnered over 5 million views.
The attention on Kimmel’s interview follows a White House meltdown over the situation last week. On Thursday, Kimmel said he could not air his conversation with Talarico on TV, explaining that Trump goon Brendan Carr of the Federal Communications Commission “threatened” him and his network, ABC.
He said the Trumpy federal agency “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.”
Kimmel titled his YouTube video: “Jimmy Kimmel’s Interview with James Talarico That the FCC Doesn’t Want You To See.”
The White House disputed the late-night host’s claim, with spokesperson Davis Ingle saying Kimmel was “play-acting—as he often does—to create a false narrative about this administration’s policies.” Ingle said Carr did not threaten Kimmel over his interview with Talarico.
Carr later released a statement of his own, calling Kimmel and Talarico’s claims a “hoax.”
In a lengthy post on X, Carr said Talarico is “running the same hoax he did a few months ago on Colbert for the purpose of getting clicks and donations—he’s banking on people not understanding the statute or operating as partisan lemmings.” He accompanied the statement with a mocking graphic of Talarico and Kimmel falling off a bike together.
Earlier this year, Carr said he would enforce the “equal time rule” and specifically said daytime and late-night talk shows will need to follow suit. By publishing their interviews on YouTube, Colbert and Kimmel sidestepped the rule.
According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an advocate for regulatory reform on U.S. policy, “the equal time rule is a relic that was intended to foster debate, not hand government officials a tool to suppress voices they don’t like. Its time has run out.”
In their conversation, Talarico told Kimmel that Trump’s frequent taunts toward him have also backfired. The 80-year-old president regularly posts insults about the 37-year-old politician, calling him “Talafreako” in interviews. Talarico revealed that he and his team created T-shirts emblazoned with the nickname–which are now the “fastest-selling” products on his website.
“We’re grateful to the president for the nickname,” Talarico joked.
