Stephen Colbert Addresses CBS Restrictions on His Interview with James Talarico on ‘The Late Show’
At the beginning of his show last night, Stephen Colbert welcomed the Late Show band and announced guest Jennifer Garner. He then posed a provocative question to the audience: “You know who is not one of my guests tonight?”
Colbert swiftly answered his own question, pointing out Texas state representative James Talarico. He revealed that Talarico was scheduled to appear but the network’s lawyers had explicitly instructed that he could not be included in the broadcast.
Colbert elaborated, saying, “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 does not want us to talk about this… Let’s talk about this.”
The host went on to discuss the recent guidance from FCC Chair Brendan Carr regarding the “equal time” rule. This regulation mandates that broadcasters who feature qualified political candidates provide equal air time to rival candidates when requested.
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Traditionally, news programming has been exempt from the equal time rule. In recent decades, however, stations have generally applied this exemption to daytime and late-night talk shows, including The View and Jimmy Kimmel Live, which have hosted various political figures like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
However, the new FCC guidance indicated that talk shows should now reconsider their status under the so-called “bona fide news” exemption. According to Carr, whether a show qualifies for this exemption will depend on several factors, including whether there was a “partisan motivation” in featuring a guest. “If you’re fake news, you’re not going to qualify for the bona fide news exemption,” Carr stated.
Colbert commented, “It’s no surprise that two of the people most affected by this threat are me and my friend Jimmy Kimmel.”
Carr made a mention of both Colbert and Kimmel in a recent interview clip that Colbert played during his show. “If Kimmel or Colbert want to continue to do their programming,” Carr said, “and they don’t want to have to comply with this requirement, then they can go to a cable channel or a podcast or a streaming service and that’s fine.”
In response, Colbert indicated that he would be taking Carr’s advice, announcing plans to post the full interview with Talarico on YouTube.
Ted Johnson contributed to this report.
