Stephen Colbert says network lawyers pulled James Talarico interview over FCC equal time fears

Late-night host Stephen Colbert said his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was pulled from Monday night’s broadcast over network fears it would violate regulatory guidance from the Trump administration on giving equal time to political candidates.

“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 said on his program, ”The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

“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.”

The situation, which came just hours before early voting began in Texas’ primary elections, comes as media institutions navigate around changing broadcast guidance, issued under the Trump administration, governing how they interview political candidates.

Talarico posted part of the interview on social media, calling it “the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see.”

Broadcast networks have been required to give equal time to political candidates, but that rule hasn’t traditionally been applied to talk shows. In January, the Federal Communications Commission issued new guidance warning late-night and daytime hosts that they need to give political candidates equal time, with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr questioning the talk show exemption and positing that hosts were “motivated by partisan purposes.”

“The FCC has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late night or daytime television talk show program on air presently would qualify for the bona fide news exemption,” according to the public notice.

In his comments, Colbert noted that the equal time provision applies to broadcast but not streaming platforms. Subsequently, his nearly 15-minute interview with Talarico was posted to the YouTube page for Colbert’s show, with the host noting specifically that the segment was only appearing online and not on broadcast.

Talarico posted a nearly minute-long clip of the sit-down on X, adding that, “This is the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see. His FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert. Trump is worried we’re about to flip Texas.”

Neither CBS nor the FCC immediately responded to messages seeking comment Tuesday,

Early voting began Tuesday in Texas, where Talarico and Rep. Jasmine Crockett are among the Democrats seeking election to the U.S. Senate seat currently held by four-term Republican Sen. John Cornyn. The primary election is March 3.

Carr, appointed by Trump to lead the agency last year, has often criticized network talk shows, suggesting last year that probing ABC’s “The View” — whose hosts have frequently been critical of Trump — over the exemption might be “worthwhile.”

Colbert’s days in his host chair are limited, following CBS’ announcement last year that it was canceling his show this May for financial reasons, shuttering a decades-old TV institution in a changing media landscape.

But the timing of that announcement — three days after Colbert criticized the settlement between Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a “60 Minutes” story — led two U.S. senators to publicly question the motives behind the move, which served to remove from air one of Trump’s most prominent and persistent late-night critics.

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Associated Press reporter David Bauder contributed to this report.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP