‘The View,’ Other Late-Night Shows to Be Affected by FCC’s New Guidance
What To Know
- The FCC has issued new guidance challenging the automatic classification of late-night and daytime talk shows.
- If The View is not granted this exemption, it would be required to provide equal airtime to political candidates from opposing parties.
The Federal Communications Commission has issued new guidance about the requirement for compliance with its equal time rule, and it seems to follow through on a promise made by Commissioner Brendan Carr in relation to The View.
Back in September 2025, after his public pressure against ABC and its affiliates led to the (ultimately temporary) suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Carr took a victory lap on certain podcasts, and when asked whether he would go after the daytime talk show, which many conservatives perceive as being too anti-Donald Trump, he outlined his plan.
“Over the years, the FCC has developed a body of case law … and has suggested that most of these late-night shows, other than SNL, are bona fide news programs. And, potentially, I would assume you can make the argument that The View is a bona fide news show, but I’m not so sure about that. I think it’s worthwhile to have the FCC look into whether The View [and others] that you still have qualify as bona fide news programs and therefore exempt from the equality opportunity regime that Congress has put into place,” he said.
Indeed, in Wednesday’s new guidance, the FCC specifically discounts the presumption that other late-night and daytime talk shows are automatically qualified as “bona fide news” just because a 2006 interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was ruled to qualify.
While the new guidance does not mention The View or other late-night programs by name — and it also doesn’t specifically discount that they will qualify for this exception, but rather says that “a program that is motivated by partisan purposes… would not be entitled to an exemption” — the issuance does align with the plan he specifically mentioned to target The View.
So how might the show be affected by this? Well, if it is not found by the FCC to be exempt from the equal time rule, that means it would have to feature political candidates of opposite parties in equal measure, which could prove to be a major problem for the show’s bookers. In the past, the cohosts have indicated that Republican guests have not wanted to come onto the show, despite inviting them to do so.
A study found that in 2025, the show cohosts interviewed 128 liberal-leaning guests in 2025, including 25 Democratic politicians, versus two conservative guests.
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G
Love to see the ladies take on a few of the cabinet secretaries like Pete. They can have clips ready and ask for clarification of statements he made. Or Pam and why no one is releasing the full Trump-Epstein files.
No Republican would go on the show if they are fact checked live on air and asked blunt follow up questions. This won’t be a softball Fox interview.
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G
NO one should have anyone on from either side that LIES all the time about everything. That helps NO one. (for example, ANYBODY, I mean, that keeps saying the 2020 election was STOLEN, should NEVER have ANY airtime anywhere. That's a LIE. NO ONE that keeps pushing the lie that vaccines cause autism. They DON'T and NEVER have. That kind of LIE has NO place on any network show, anywhere., is another example.)
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A
At this point, I think only you-know-who even bothers bringing THAT up...
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G
I was upset 40 years ago when the fairness doctrine which did about the same thing was repealed—by republicans. Now they want it back because they are getting backlash in so many areas and they want to put spin on the unliked things they do. Guess what—The view has never stopped having people from the other side on, and have ALWAYS had 1 or 2 conservatives as permanent hosts. They haven’t fared well explaining their positions and making them seem sane. So I say, bring it on. It may be Trump’s biggest mistake, because they do not come off well.
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M
Free speech. !!
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L
So isn't this the obvious thing to do: Look at number of invitations proferred, not number of invitations accepted? Of course, there's no dearth of people (conciously or un) oblivious to the obvious...especially when it's in their vested interest to be.
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J
Because millions of people like to hear truth!
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G
I quit watching the view years ago because of the politics. I watched the view for entertainment (movies, stars, jokes that are funny). I love Whoopi she is so funny and I miss that. Please keep the politics out of it. I know the View is about every ones point of view, but I can get news information from news channels.
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T
The view invites more liberals than conservatives and with liberals they don’t ask the important or hard questions the other way around with conservatives and most of the time don’t even give conservatives a chance to explain when they actually do invite one on once in awhile, all the other talk shows along with the view are just democrat political activists talking liberal view points
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G
Anyone appointed by President Trump acts only to please him with no regard for what is morally or ethically correct as a government employee. First Amendment protection is only offered to people who favor Trump. The FCC was supposed to be neutral - what a joke….
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J
Right you are
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G
I can’t understand why it’s still on the air at all
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