Stephen Colbert accuses CBS of pulling interview with Democratic lawmaker - and it 'backfired'

Stephen Colbert has hit out at the Trump administration, accusing them of censorship after CBS pulled his interview with Democrat Texas state Rep. James Talarico. CBS denied it barred the interview from being aired.

Instead, the talk show host's conversation with the politician running for Senate was posted on the show's YouTube page (outside the Federal Communications Commission's scope), which at the time of writing has over 5 million views - leading to claims on social media that the interview received more views that it would have done if it had aired.

During Monday's show, Colbert addressed the matter, "He [Talarico] 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.

"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."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

For further context, Colbert’s long-running talk show is coming to an end in May after a 33-year run due to it being cancelled by CBS, which is owned by Paramount and last year was acquired by David Ellison, a Trump ally.

FCC rule change

Previously, the FCC (regulators of radio, television, wire, internet, Wi-Fi, satellite, and cable) gave an exemption to late-night and daytime talk shows to their rule that equal airtime to all legally qualified candidates for public office.

However, this has since changed, as last month, FCC chair Brendan Carr walked back this exemption for programs like Colbert's, hence why his interview with Talarico was not aired.

“If you’re fake news, you’re not going to qualify for the bona fide news exemption,” Carr said at a press conference, as per CNN.

Colbert mentioned this rule on Monday, where he said Carr "had not gotten rid of it yet, but CBS generously did it for him and told me unilaterally that I had to abide by the equal time rules, something I have never been asked to do for an interview in the 21 years of this job."

"Now that decision, I’ll be clear, is their right, just like I have the right to talk about their decision on air.”

What have CBS said?

Since Colbert spoke out, CBS has responded to the host's comments in a statement where they denied they barred the interview from being aired.

“The Late Show was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico,” the network said.

“The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett [D-Texas], and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled,” they added.

How has Colbert responded?

However, Colbert fired back at the network on Monday's episode, accusing the Trump administration of censorship.

"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 continued. “He’s like a toddler with too much screen time. He gets cranky and then drops a load in his diaper,” Colbert said.

How are viewers reacting?

On social media, people are noting how this has backfired for the FCC, as the whole thing has attracted even more attention to Colbert's interview with Talarico.

One person wrote, "In less than 24 hours, James Talarico’s interview on Stephen Colbert has amassed over 1.2 million views. This movement will NOT be silenced."

"This clip will get 10X-100X the views because of the Trump temper tantrum," a second person said.

A third person added, "Just because CBS kneels to Trump doesn’t mean the rest of us have to. Pass this along on every one of your social media accounts. Make sure it is seen far and wide in our country."

"One thing about living in an attention economy is that when you say something shouldn’t be allowed to get attention, it tends to get a lot more attention," Parker Butler, Digital strategist for Democrats, commented.

A fifth person commented, "By blocking the broadcast of this interview, all Trump-FCC-CBS did was give more attention and eyeballs to the segment … if it had just aired like normal - no one would be talking about it - instead - they’ve elevated @jamestalarico even more."

Elsewhere from Indy100, Stephen Colbert takes swipe at Donald Trump's memory issues, and Prince Harry making TikToks with Colbert wasn't on our 2025 bingo.

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