Stephen Colbert Slams CBS On-Air for Banning Interview With Democrat Candidate

Stephen Colbert didn’t hold back on Monday’s (February 16) Late Show as he blasted his CBS bosses and FCC chairman Brendan Carr for banning his interview with Texas Democratic state representative James Talarico.

At the top of the show, the late-night host introduced his house band and hyped the line-up of guests for Monday’s show, which included The Last Thing He Told Me star Jennifer Garner. He then told his audience, “You know who is not one of my guests tonight? That’s Texas state representative James Talarico.”

Colbert went on to explain, “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.”

As the studio audience booed, the comedian added, “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.”

Colbert, who will broadcast the final episode of The Late Show in May, revealed the scrapped interview was the result of new guidance from FCC Chair Carr, who suggested that late-night shows follow the “equal time” rule. This rule requires broadcasters to provide equal time to each political candidate running for office.

There has long been an exception for news and talk-show interviews with politicians. However, as Colbert pointed out, Carr’s latest guidelines said he was thinking about dropping the exception for late-night talk shows because “some of them are motivated by partisan purposes.”

“Well, FCC you,” Colbert retorted. “I think you are motivated by partisan purposes yourself. Sir, you smelt it because you dealt it. Let’s 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’s like a toddler with too much screen time.”

The host said the two people most affected by this new rule are himself and his friend and fellow late-night host, Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel drew the ire of Carr last year after comments he made on-air about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. ABC temporarily suspended Kimmel following backlash from right-wing critics.

Colbert played a clip of Carr defending his new guidelines, in which the FCC Chair said, “If Kimmel or Colbert want to continue to do their programming, 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.”

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“I decided to take Brendan Carr’s advice,” Colbert said, telling his audience that he would still interview Talarico and post the entirety of it on the Late Show YouTube channel. “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 find it.”

CBS previously announced that The Late Show would end in May 2026, following the close of the 2025–26 broadcast season. The network cited financial reasons for the cancellation, claiming the show loses $40 million annually. Some critics argued the axing was politically motivated, with parent company Paramount hoping to appease President Trump amid its merger with Skydance, which required government approval.

You can watch Colbert’s monologue and the full interview with Talarico in the videos above.