From: nospam@nospam.com   
      
   Lee wrote:   
      
   >https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/stephen-colbert-cbs-blocked-james-   
   >talarico-interview-fcc-equal-time-1236665220/   
      
   February 17, 2026   
   Stephen Colbert Says CBS Blocked James Talarico Interview Over FCC ‘Equal   
   Time’ Fears   
      
   Stephen Colbert went public Monday night with a striking accusation against   
   his own network: that CBS lawyers had barred him from airing an interview   
   with Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who is running for U.S. Senate, in a   
   preemptive bow to FCC pressure over the agency’s push to apply its “equal   
   time” rule to late-night talk shows.   
      
   Colbert revealed that the network’s legal team had called “The Late Show”   
   staff directly and told them “in no uncertain terms” the interview could   
   not be broadcast. He had additionally been instructed not to raise the   
   matter on air. He then proceeded to do precisely the opposite.   
      
   Walking his audience through the FCC’s “equal time” rule – which requires   
   broadcast networks to provide opposing political candidates equivalent   
   airtime – Colbert noted that talk shows had long benefited from an   
   exemption to that requirement. “There’s long been an exception for this   
   rule, an exception for news interviews and talk show interviews with   
   politicians,” he said. “That’s crucial. How else were voters supposed to   
   know back in ’92 that Bill Clinton sucked at saxophone?”   
      
   The host reserved particular scorn for FCC chair Brendan Carr, whom he   
   described as a “smug bowling pin,” over a Jan. 21 letter in which Carr   
   suggested the exemption should no longer apply to programs he characterized   
   as being “motivated by partisan purposes.” Colbert addressed the Trump-   
   appointed regulator directly: “FCC you… because I think you are motivated   
   by partisan purposes yourself, sir. Hey, you smelt it ’cause you dealt it.   
   You are Dutch-ovening America’s airwaves.”   
      
   Colbert also pointed out what he characterized as a glaring inconsistency   
   in Carr’s approach – noting that while the FCC chair was targeting late-   
   night talk shows, he had made clear that right-wing talk radio would not be   
   subject to the equal time notice. “I get this part,” Colbert said. “You   
   can’t get rid of talk radio. What else would your angriest uncle do in   
   traffic? Talk to your saddest aunt?”   
      
   Crucially, Colbert noted that Carr had not yet formally eliminated the   
   exemption – making CBS’s decision to act as though he had a unilateral one.   
   “He hasn’t done away with it yet, but my network is unilaterally enforcing   
   it as if he had,” he said. As the studio audience booed, Colbert offered a   
   sardonic explanation for the network’s posture – saying the decision was   
   made “for purely financial reasons,” a wry echo of the rationale CBS cited   
   when it canceled “The Late Show.”   
      
   Colbert placed the FCC’s moves within a broader pattern of political   
   pressure. “Let’s just call this what it is. Donald Trump’s administration   
   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.” Kimmel has also publicly pushed back against the proposed   
   rule change.   
      
   When Carr suggested that hosts unwilling to comply could migrate to “a   
   cable channel or podcast or a streaming service,” Colbert was withering:   
   “Great idea. A man whose job is to regulate broadcast TV suggests everyone   
   just leave broadcast TV. It’s like when Arby’s changed their slogan to   
   ‘Arby’s, would it kill you to eat a salad?'”   
      
   He then announced he would conduct the Talarico interview anyway – just not   
   on the CBS broadcast. The conversation would instead air on “The Late Show”   
   YouTube channel after the show, though Colbert noted the network would not   
   permit him to share a URL or QR code directing viewers there.   
      
   The restrictions went further than just barring the interview itself.   
   Colbert revealed he was also prohibited from showing any image of Talarico   
   – including photographs or even drawings – under FCC rules forbidding any   
   candidate appearance “by voice or picture.” He proceeded to display a stock   
   photo the show had found by Googling “not James Talarico,” and then held up   
   a drawing he claimed, for legal reasons, he could not confirm was or was   
   not a likeness of the candidate – which turned out to resemble Snoopy.   
      
   Talarico interview:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiTJ7Pz_59A&t=1s   
      
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