The FCC‘s proposed changes to the equal time rules for TV talk shows is officially taking its toll on late night.
CBS‘ Late Show host Stephen Colbert says that lawyers for the network blocked him from interviewing Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful James Talarico, citing the FCC’s new guidance for political candidates on talk shows.
Colbert opened his show Monday by explaining the situation. “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,” Colbert told the audience. “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 went on to explain the FCC equal time guidance change, citing The Hollywood Reporter’s story on the matter and noting that historically talk shows like his (and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live and The View) had been exempt from the equal time rules, going back some 30 years.
“In his 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 FCC U because I think you are motivated by partisan purposes yourself, sir,” Colbert said. “Smelt it because you dealt it. You are Dutch ovening America’s airwaves. 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.”
Watch:
The FCC has reportedly opened an investigation into ABC and The View over its own interview with Talerico, who is pursuing the U.S. Senate seat in Texas currently held by John Cornyn. Another Democrat, Jasmine Crockett, is also running for the nomination, with Ken Paxton and Wesley Hunt challenging Cornyn on the Republican side.
Colbert then showed a clip of Carr explaining that if talk shows want to have on political candidates, they can do so only if they are not shown on broadcast TV.
“I decided to take Brendan Carr’s advice. I am going to interview James Talarico tonight, but it’s not going to be on The Late Show, it’s going to be on the Late Show’s YouTube page,” Colbert told the audience. “The Network says, I can’t give you a URL or a QR code, but I promise you, if you go to our YouTube page, you’ll find it.”
You can watch the interview below:
“This is the party that ran against cancel culture, and now they’re trying to control what we watch, what we say, what we read, and this is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top,” Talarico told Colbert. “They went after The View because I went on there. They went after Jimmy Kimmel for telling a joke they didn’t like. They went after you for telling the truth about Paramount’s bribe to Donald Trump.”
It is worth noting that CBS has already canceled The Late Show, which will have its final episode in May. CBS’ parent company Paramount is also engaged in a pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery, trying to pry it away from a signed deal with Netflix, and has premised its argument to shareholders on a speedy regulatory approval process.
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