The FCC (probably) didn’t censor Stephen Colbert

For the 12 of us who woke up Tuesday morning wondering what we had missed on Monday’s late-night shows, CBS greeted us with a concerning development.

Overnight, Stephen Colbert had laid into his network, dedicating time at the top of The Late Show to claim that CBS prohibited him from airing an interview with the Texas Democratic Senate candidate 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 said. “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.”

The blame, he argued, lay with CBS’s lawyers for fearing repercussions from the Federal Communications Commission, the federal body that regulates the airwaves, and its Trump-loyalist chair, Brendan Carr, who has picked fights with Trump critics on TV before.

It seemed like a clear-cut case of the federal government having a chilling effect on free speech. But since then, new details have emerged that complicate Colbert’s claims.

So what’s actually happening?

Colbert’s claims about CBS’s legal fears are rooted in an FCC rule that has received renewed attention under Trump 2.0. It’s known as the “equal-time” rule: a requirement during campaign season for candidates competing for the same office to receive equal airtime on networks. As my colleague Cameron Peters explained, late-night and daytime talk shows were long considered exempt from this rule, but in January, the Trump administration announced it would begin to enforce the rule more strictly against these shows.

Colbert, CBS, and TV talk shows have all been recent targets of the FCC and the Trump administration, and it’s not hard to see why. CBS’s parent company Paramount is canceling Colbert’s show in May, Trump sued Paramount/CBS over a 60 Minutes story in 2025, Disney/ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel last year after Carr criticized a monologue he gave, and the FCC is apparently investigating whether ABC’s The View violated this rule by interviewing Talarico this year.

Colbert referenced all of this Monday night: “Let’s just call this what it is: Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV. … So, it’s no surprise that two of the people most affected by this threat are me and my friend Jimmy Kimmel.”

But CBS and Paramount are contesting this version of things. In statements shared with news organizations on Tuesday, CBS said it never prohibited The Late Show from broadcasting the Talarico interview, and instead offered legal guidance about the equal-time rule, as well as alternative options.

According to the statement CBS provided to The Hill, Colbert’s show then decided “to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options.”

The full segment, which had been taped but not aired, would appear overnight on The Late Show’s YouTube channel, where it has now received well over 5 million views, as of publishing.

The White House, of course, is defending the FCC and Carr, while attacking Colbert. 

And the saga took another turn on Tuesday night, when Colbert dug in to his free-speech case, calling CBS’s denial “crap,” saying they were backing down against “bullies,” and arguing that corporate lawyers already read and have to “approve every script that goes on the air.”

The controversy also has a campaign dimension. Talarico is running in a competitive primary against Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a media darling who has appeared on The Late Show multiple times. Early voting in that Texas Senate primary began this week — something Crockett has noted when asked to weigh in.

“I do think there are additional layers at play here,” she said Tuesday at a press availability. “I do want to make sure that…we have exactly what happened versus the mania that just so happens to play out on the very first of early voting.”

She made a similar point on a podcast, suggesting the drama may have given Talarico “the boost he was looking for.” None of this amounts to a defense of Trump, Carr, or the FCC — but it strikes a conspiratorial note as her race with Talarico grows more competitive, and messier over identity politics.

Early voting ends next week, and the primary will be held on March 3.