{"id":1000348,"date":"2026-09-14T06:39:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T06:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1000348\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T06:39:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T06:39:25","slug":"espns-cruz-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1000348\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN\u2019s Cruz Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Kimmel made an unusual announcement last week: He had an interview with a buzzy political candidate, but would not air it on his ABC late-night show. Instead, his staff posted that interview with Democratic Texas Senate nominee James Talarico to YouTube, spooked by equal-time rules under FCC boss Brendan Carr.<\/p>\n

Compare that to what happened on the also Disney-owned ESPN\u2019s airwaves on Saturday, when “College GameDay” gave Sen. Ted Cruz nearly 10 minutes to lobby for a bill currently before Congress. Carr couldn\u2019t have been less bothered. “I do think it\u2019s interesting to me that Ted Cruz got a couple minutes of airtime on GameDay, a cable show, and all of a sudden you\u2019ve got people apparently calling for some sort of equal time, which really isn\u2019t the right analogy here,” Carr told Status.<\/p>\n

Even though Cruz is not currently a candidate\u2014and thus equal-time rules do not apply\u2014the episode made waves because Carr has spent the past 18 months threatening to strip broadcasters of certain equal-time exceptions, with Talarico as a recurring target. After a February interview with Stephen Colbert sparked controversy, Talarico recently sat down with Kimmel for the YouTube-only interview<\/a>\u2014which, one pointed headline later suggested the FCC \u201cdoesn\u2019t want you to see,\u201d had over 8 million views as of Sunday.<\/p>\n

But when Cruz sat for his own extended interview Saturday on a cable sports show, to promote his own pending legislation, Carr saw nothing to worry about. The statute represents a “totally different universe,” he told me, noting the law applies to broadcast stations, not cable programming, and covers legally qualified candidates\u2014a category Cruz doesn’t fall into here. He did concede that it could be worth a \u201cdebate\u2014whether it\u2019s a legal, policy, or journalistic debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s look at the data, and if people really think that Republicans are getting outsized coverage across all cable, I\u2019m happy to have a debate as a general matter,\u201d he told me. But whatever the optics, he was clear that there’s limited authority to force a cable network’s hand.<\/p>\n

In any case, the Cruz interview, coming live from Austin ahead of the Ohio State-Texas primetime matchup, presents the latest consternation for a network still absorbing high-profile layoffs while increasingly making the controversial personality<\/a> Pat McAfee its face. Even if the interview won\u2019t land the network in hot water with the FCC, it sparked questions inside and outside Bristol about the segment’s overtly political nature\u2014and more blurring of the line between its premier hosts and political advocacy.<\/p>\n

Cruz joined the first hour of GameDay programming, sitting with host Rece Davis to make the case for the Protect College Sports Act, the bipartisan legislation he co-authored. Much of his message was drowned out by boos and chants of “Ted, you suck!”\u2014and the pushback didn’t stay in Austin. Online, reactions ranged from fury that ESPN handed a sitting senator an extended platform to questions about why the notoriously rowdy GameDay crowd would sit still for a lengthy political interview in the first place.<\/p>\n

Those questions are circulating inside ESPN too, I’m told, where staffers were left puzzled by the decision and “embarrassed” by the backlash. “Who was that interview for? Because it wasn’t the GameDay audience,” one staffer said. Another called it “just really embarrassing stuff.”<\/p>\n

Cruz happened to be in Austin for the game and had expressed interest to ESPN about appearing to discuss the bill, a person familiar with the matter told Status, adding that given the legislation’s relevance to college football, “it was an easy decision to have him join, especially in his home state.”<\/p>\n

But the appearance struck some inside the network as strange. Austin is hardly friendly territory for Cruz, making the hostile crowd unsurprising. “I still can’t believe anyone thought that was a good idea,” one ESPN staffer said, calling the location an obvious “red flag.” More broadly, viewers were startled to see GameDay get so overtly political. “Did not know ESPN had become a political lobbying firm,” former ESPN host Jemele Hill wrote on X.<\/p>\n

The PCSA is slated for a Senate vote as soon as this week, and Cruz was clearly still drumming up support. The bill needs 60 votes to clear the Senate and head to the House. Notably backed by Donald Trump, it would grant the NCAA antitrust exemptions to enforce rules on athlete compensation and eligibility. Saturday wasn’t even the bill’s first GameDay appearance\u2014a week earlier, Nick Saban, the legislation’s national spokesman, voiced support for it on-air with McAfee, ostensibly also in his role as a cohost of GameDay.<\/p>\n

But if you’ve been following ESPN’s coverage since the start of football season, there’s a good chance you don’t know there’s organized opposition to the bill at all. On Monday, as PCSA supporters hold a press conference, opponents are gathering for an event led by Sen. Chris Murphy\u2014a whispered-about potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate\u2014alongside athlete advocates and college athletes themselves. “Participants will detail how the bill denies athletes the rights and protections they are owed as workers and cuts off any path these athletes have to advocate for themselves\u2014all so the NCAA, college athletic conferences and schools can consolidate money and power over athletes’ lives,” the press release reads.<\/p>\n

Prominent sports media critics, like NBC’s Mike Florio, have blasted ESPN. Florio torched the network<\/a> for “leading the conga line, with influential voices like Nick Saban and Pat McAfee openly pushing the Protect College Sports Act,” and questioned why Murphy hasn’t gotten an equal platform. “It would be safe to wager the farm on ESPN not preempting McAfee’s show and taking Murphy’s press conference live as it happens on Monday,” he said.<\/p>\n

ESPN hasn’t received an interview request from anyone in the PCSA opposition, I’m told, but said it would honor one if it came. A network spokesperson didn\u2019t provide comment for this story. A spokesperson for Murphy didn’t respond to a question about whether he plans to make his case on the network.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s interview may have already generated one. Responding to the Cruz segment, the NAACP publicly challenged ESPN to give opponents their turn. “Surprised ESPN so willing lent their platform to political performance today. But we’ll play,” the organization wrote on X, proposing that president Derrick Johnson join the network when GameDay travels to his home state of Mississippi next week “to express why the Protect College Sports Act is dangerous to Black Athletes and the Black community.”<\/p>\n

ESPN has indicated it plans to welcome such a request. After two straight weeks of PCSA supporters getting the GameDay platform, the opposition may finally get its shot.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Missed the Status Summit? Worry not! We have started uploading video of the conversations we had with top media figures. This weekend, we posted full-length video of our interview with former CBS News & Stations chief Wendy McMahon, who spoke candidly about Brendan Carr\u2019s war against Disney and news organizations that \u201cbend the knee\u201d to Donald Trump. McMahon also addressed her successor at CBS News and the serious concerns she harbors about \u201c60 Minutes\u201d under Bari Weiss. Watch here.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u25ba We also posted video of the conversation<\/a> we had with Don Lemon and Mehdi Hasan. The duo spoke about building independent media businesses, while weighing in on various other topics, including CNN\u2019s platforming of Scott Jennings, the federal government\u2019s attempts to stifle the free speech of critics, and the \u201cF word\u201d Hasan wishes were said more on cable news.<\/p>\n

\u25ba And don\u2019t miss our conversation<\/a> with Kara Swisher, who weighed in on the Ellisons\u2019 bid for CNN, Jeff Bezos\u2019 stewardship of The WaPo, and more.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"Dario<\/p>\n

Anderson Cooper interviews Anthropic chief Dario Amodei on CNN. (Screenshot via CNN)<\/p>\n

Amodei\u2019s A.I. Alarm: Growing concern over the pace of A.I. development reached new heights this weekend, as leaders of the tech giants building the models warned of an urgent need to slow down over safety concerns. <\/p>\n

Dario Amodei led the calls in an unusually public circuit for the Anthropic chief. He authored a blog post<\/a> titled \u201cWe Must Pace the Frontier\u201d that warned rogue A.I. agents could be capable of taking over the entire internet within six to 12 months.<\/p>\n

Amodei appeared this weekend in interviews, first with Anderson Cooper on CNN, and then on \u201cCBS Sunday Morning\u201d with correspondent Jo Ling Kent. <\/p>\n

OpenAI chief Sam Altman said in response to Amodei\u2019s post, \u201cI agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier.\u201d He also told<\/a> Fortune Editor-In-Chief Alyson Shontell that the company has been working on a pact with other leading A.I. companies to address safety risks. Altman further said OpenAI won\u2019t likely IPO in 2026, partially citing the debate over safety that has dominated the A.I. discourse. <\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd14 Elon Musk also posted on his X platform that he agreed with Amodei. Curiously missing from the weekend discussion: Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai.<\/p>\n

\u201c60 Minutes\u201d kicked off its 59th season\u2014and its first full one under the stewardship of Bari Weiss and new executive producer Nick Bilton. <\/p>\n

The stories included a Norah O\u2019Donnell interview with the U.S. pilot shot down and rescued in Iran and Lesley Stahl\u2019s investigation of \u201cthe pardon economy\u201d under Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth and political appointees at the Pentagon pushed for the airmen in the shot-down F-15 to participate in the interview despite their concerns, Zachary Cohen and Brian Stelter reported. [CNN<\/a>]<\/p>\n

A leaked report from the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation suggested devastating economic consequences if David Ellison pulled Paramount out of California. Of course, most experts are skeptical that Ellison\u2019s threat has teeth. [Variety<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Status Scoop | Slate is marking its 30th anniversary Monday by resurrecting a near-replica of its original 1996 homepage for 30 days\u2014stocked daily with archive picks from former and current staffers.<\/p>\n

Another apparent reason Donald Trump banned The AP from the White House and Air Force One last year: The organization refused to give the Trump team rights to its iconic photo of Trump after the assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Maggie Haberman and Jim Rutenberg reported. [NYT<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed took issue with Weijia Jiang\u2019s questioning on CBS\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation\u201d about his relationship<\/a> with Hasan Piker. \u201cThis is the third time you’ve asked about a Twitch streamer,\u201d he said. [Bluesky<\/a>]<\/p>\n

CNN\u2019s Clarissa Ward told The WaPo\u2019s Jason Rezaian that if journalists should be activists about anything, \u201cit\u2019s got to be press freedom\u201d\u2014including standing up for reporters in Ukraine and Gaza. [Instagram<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in “Practical Magic 2.” (Warner Bros.)<\/p>\n

Spidey\u2019s spell is broken! \u201cPractical Magic 2\u201d dethroned \u201cSpider-Man: Brand New Day\u201d atop the weekend domestic box office for the first time in the latter\u2019s six-week run in theaters.<\/p>\n

The Sandra Bullock- and Nicole Kidman-starred sequel summoned $30 million domestically after poor critic reviews.<\/p>\n

The Tom Holland- and Zendaya-led Spidey slipped to the second spot, earning around $8.4 million in its seventh weekend of release.<\/p>\n

That tally put it juuuust short of dethroning 2015\u2019s \u201cStar Wars: The Force Awakens\u201d as the top-grossing domestic movie of all time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Odyssey\u201d continued its strong run, with the Christopher Nolan epic coming in a close third with $8.1 million in its ninth weekend in theaters.<\/p>\n

The film became Universal\u2019s highest-grossing release ever worldwide, surpassing 2015\u2019s \u201cJurassic World\u201d with $1.68 billion.<\/p>\n

Newcomer \u201cRunner,\u201d an action-comedy starring Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson, hauled in around $6.4 million in its debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoyote vs. Acme,\u201d the surprise late-summer hit, placed fifth on the weekend with about $6.2 million.<\/p>\n