We are in the final countdown of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, boo hiss, with the Emmy-winning talk show ending in May. This was set in motion last summer, a brief recap: Colbert lambasted his network CBS/Paramount for kowtowing to Trump with a $16 million payout, after Dementia Don sued CBS show 60 Minutes over an October 2024 episode that featured Madame Vice President Kamala Harris. News of the $16M settlement conveniently came out while Skydance was courting the FCC to sanction their acquisition of CBS/Paramount, a link Colbert most certainly drew attention to. Within days of Colbert accurately reporting the facts, CBS canceled The Late Show. So the only silver lining I’ve been clinging to in this mess is that Colbert was able to enter this final season with absolutely no f–ks to give. What’s CBS gonna do, fire him?!
Well, I guess I wasn’t imaginative enough, because the network is still making fascist agita for Colbert. Monday’s episode was supposed to feature an interview with Texas State Representative James Talarico, who’s running for the Democratic Senate nomination. Political candidates appearing on talk shows has been standard practice for 30 years, dating back to The Tonight Show being granted an exemption to the equal time rules by the FCC in 1996. Only last month, current FCC head Brendan Carr followed his fuhrer’s bidding and announced the exemptions would no longer be honored because something something Hollywood has an alliance with Democrats!! All of which to say, Colbert spent the Monday episode calling out the FCC’s latest shenanigans and CBS for kowtowing yet again, while letting his viewers know they could catch the Talarico interview on YouTube.
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.”
CBS, however, tells a different story. In a statement Tuesday afternoon, the network said, “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.
…“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.”
…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.”
We call him Dementia Don, and I feel like one of the biggest things Trump keeps forgetting is that the election went his way in 2024! I know a lot of this equal time nonsense is the administration greasing the wheels for the midterms this year, but the overall behavior here screams defensive and loser. It just doesn’t add up that they’re crying salty white tears over “Talk shows won’t have Republicans on and it’s not fair!” when Republicans have congress, the presidency, and Supreme Court. But they’ve been wronged, sure. And it’s not that talk shows refuse to have Republicans on; Republicans (for the most part) are too chicken sh-t to risk legitimate questioning. I found it especially nasty that CBS’s rebuttal tried to suggest that Colbert was reluctant to have Rep. Jasmine Crockett on for equal time. Puh-lease. Ultimately, though, the last laugh’s on Carr and the FCC for their “no broadcast TV” clause, because YouTube is continually overtaking TV in ratings. I’m not the best at sportsball lingo, but I think this is what they call an “own goal.”