Kimmel reveals he's interviewing James Talarico under 'unusual circumstances,' citing FCC threats

Late-night host revealed Wednesday he would be interviewing Texas Senate candidate James Talarico on Thursday under "unusual circumstances."

"Tomorrow night, Ill be interviewing James Talarico — tomorrow night, under unusual circumstances," Kimmel said. "You know, for a lot of years, for the whole 20-plus years of our show, in fact, Ive been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all, just like Letterman did, Leno did, Arsenio, etc., etc. Ive interviewed a lot of political candidates from Hillary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Donald Trump himself."

Kimmel pointed to his interviews with President Donald Trump in 2015 and in 2016.

JIMMY KIMMEL RETURNS FROM LENGTHY HIATUS WITH DEFIANT MESSAGE TO FCC CHAIR BRENDAN CARR

"Now that hes president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations, based on traditional simple editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they dont like. And so, out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas who 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. So if you want to learn about a candidate for the Senate tomorrow, youll have to go to the Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel where you will see it in its entirety tomorrow night," Kimmel said.

He added, "And thank goodness we have that, because in the America we live in right now, this is the best we can do. Until November, of course. Make sure you register to vote, by the way, because thats the most important thing you can do."

COLBERT LASHES OUT AT CBS, SAYS CANCELLATION REINFORCED A NARRATIVE OF KNEE BENDING TO TRUMP

The situation is reminiscent of former late-night host Stephen Colbert's interview with Talarico ahead of the Texas Senate primary, in which he was competing against Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

Colbert's show, which has since been canceled, did not air the interview with Talarico and only posted it to the show's YouTube channel in February. Colbert announced at the time that CBS had stopped them from airing the interview.

CONSERVATIVE WATCHDOG TELLS FCC THAT 'THE VIEW' IS A DEMOCRATIC PARTY OPERATION, NOT A NEWS PROGRAM

"THE LATE SHOW was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico," Fox News Digital at the time.

The statement continued, "The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled. THE LATE SHOW decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options."

DAVID MARCUS: HOW CROCKETT'S LAST STAND IN TEXAS COULD BRING DOWN TALARICO

lost the Senate primary to Talarico, blamed CBS and Colbert's show.

"We actually received a phone call, and that was a little bit earlier today