CBS Offered Colbert "Legal Guidance," Says It Didn't Pull Interview

Posted in: CBS, Current News, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: cbs, colbert, fcc

CBS Offered Colbert "Legal Guidance," Says It Didn't Pull Interview

CBS claims that it didn't prohibit Stephen Colbert from airing an interview with James Talarico, but it did offer "legal guidance."

Published Tue, 17 Feb 2026 14:43:07 -0600
by Ray Flook
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Article Summary

• Stephen Colbert claims CBS refused to air his interview with Texas Rep. James Talarico due to FCC fears.
• CBS insists it didn't ban the interview, but gave "legal guidance" over possible FCC equal-time issues.
• Colbert accuses FCC chair Brendan Carr of targeting late-night shows while sparing right-wing radio.
• The unaired Colbert-Talarico interview and commentary was later released on YouTube, garnering millions of views.

It appears we have a game of "he said/broadcast network said" on our hands. On Monday night, late-night host Stephen Colbert told his audience that his interview with Texas State Representative James Talarico would not air due to network concerns about retaliation from FCC chair Brendan Carr. The network's concern was that Carr would penalize CBS under the "equal time" rule, even though that doesn't apply to talk shows, and a formal change has yet to be made by Carr to the policy. In addition, the late-night host claimed that CBS's lawyers didn't want him discussing the matter on the show… which Colbert clearly did, as you can see in the video above.

With "Why CBS Didn't Broadcast Stephen Colbert's Interview With James Talarico" and "Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislature" scoring more than 3 million combined views on YouTube alone, CBS has released a statement saying that the late-night talk show "was not prohibited" from broadcasting the interview, but it did offer "legal guidance" in how the interview could "trigger the FCC's equal-time rule" and what that could mean.

"'The Late Show' was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico. 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." What the statement doesn't address is that, as we mentioned above, there hasn't been a definitive change to the FCC's rule that would now include talk shows; Carr simply offered the threat of it happening.

Colbert Defies CBS, Reveals Network Pulled Interview Over FCC Fears

"You know you know who is not one of my guests tonight? That's Texas State Representative James Talarico. He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network's lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast. Then I was told in some uncertain terms that, not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on. And because my network clearly doesn't want us to talk about this, let's talk about this," Colbert shared during his Monday night show.

The late-night host continued, calling out Carr's previous threats to re-evaluate daytime and late-night shows regarding the "equal time" rule. "So, you've you might have heard of this thing called the equal time rule. It's an old FCC rule that applies only to radio and broadcast television, not cable or streaming, that says if a show has a candidate on during an election, they have to have all that candidates' opponents on as well. It's the FCC's most time-honored rule, right after no nipples at the Super Bowl," he added, noting that there has "long been an exception for this rule" when it came to politicians appearing on talk shows.

"But on January 21st of this year, a letter was released by FCC chairman and smug bowling pin Brendan Carr. In this letter, Carr said he was thinking about dropping the exception for talk shows because he said some of them were motivated by partisan purposes. Well, sir, you're chairman of the FCC. So, FCCU, because I think you are motivated by partisan purposes yourself, sir. Hey, you smelt it cuz you dealt it." Colbert continued, making the case that the White House "wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV because all Trump does is watch TV. He's like a toddler with too much screen time. He gets cranky and then drops a load in his diapers. So, it's no surprise that two of the people most affected by this threat are me and my friend Jimmy Kimmel."

Before bringing his update on the show to a close, Colbert put the word out that the video would be available on the show's YouTube channel (which we have waiting for you below). From there, Colbert noted that Carr's concern about "equal time" and partisanship doesn't seem to apply to conservative broadcasters. "Carr here claims he's just getting partisanship off the airwaves, but the FCC, as I said, is also in charge of regulating radio broadcasts. And what would you know? Brendan Carr says right-wing talk radio isn't a target of the FCC's equal time notice." Colbert then showed an excerpt from a report noting that Carr wasn't looking into applying the "equal time" rule to right-wing radio stations. After a wave of boos from the audience, the late-night host added, "No, no, I get this part. It makes sense. You can't get rid of talk radio. What else would your angriest uncle do in traffic? Talk to your saddest aunt?" In addition, Colbert called out his bosses for pulling the interview, even though Carr hasn't made an official decision on the exemption from talk shows.

Here's a look at Colbert's interview with Talarico, originally planned for Monday night's show. In the video below, the two discuss a number of issues raised during Talarico's campaign for the Democratic nomination for Senate – including the separation of church and state, fighting back against  Christian Nationalism, the dangers of consolidated corporate-owned media, and the "trumped up" culture wars being pushed by Republicans in states like Talarico's:

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