FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Senator Ted Cruz’s appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay did not trigger the equal-time rule because it was on cable, not an over-the-air broadcast, and Cruz is not a "legally qualified" candidate in this year's midterms. The clarification came after the FCC warned ABC over Jimmy Kimmel’s interview with Democratic candidate James Talarico, which Kimmel posted to YouTube following the warning. The agency in January removed daytime and late-night talk shows from a "bona fide" news exemption, narrowing when equal-time applies.
FCC Chair: Ted Cruz’s ESPN Interview Outside Equal-Time Rule; ABC Warned Over Kimmel’s Talarico Segment
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks at the Republican National Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., September 10, 2026. REUTERS/Callaghan O'hare
LOS ANGELES — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said on Saturday that an ESPN interview featuring Republican Senator Ted Cruz did not violate the FCC's equal-time requirements, a clarification that came days after the agency issued a warning to a broadcast network over a late-night appearance by a Democratic candidate.
Carr responded to a social media post from a college Democrats group by explaining two key points: the equal-time law applies to over-the-air broadcast stations, not cable channels such as ESPN, and it covers only "legally qualified" candidates — a designation Carr said Cruz does not hold for this year's midterm elections.
The chairman's post followed an FCC warning to ABC, a sister network of ESPN, regarding late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's interview with James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for Texas' other U.S. Senate seat. After the warning, Kimmel posted his conversation with Talarico on YouTube rather than airing it on ABC.
"Congress wanted to ensure that voters would decide elections, not media gatekeepers picking winners and losers by providing preferential airtime to some candidates and not others," Carr wrote.
Talarico is running against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, in a contest that could help determine control of the U.S. Senate in November.
In January, the Republican-led FCC revised its guidance to say daytime and late-night television talk shows should no longer be treated as "bona fide" news programs exempt from equal-time obligations, narrowing the class of programs that can avoid the rule.
Earlier this year, Cruz criticized the FCC for reviewing broadcast licenses held by Walt Disney, the parent company of ABC and ESPN. "It is not government's job to censor speech and I do not believe the FCC should operate as the speech police," he told Punchbowl News, according to comments confirmed by his office.
(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein; Editing by Sergio Non and Kim Coghill)
Help us improve.
