Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” Forced to Block Texas Democratic Senate Candidate Interview After Network Legal Warning [Video]

Stephen Colbert says CBS lawyers stopped his “Late Show” interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico from airing, and he’s pointing straight at political pressure as the reason.

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On Monday night, the “Late Show” host told viewers the interview had already been taped. However, it never made it to broadcast television.

“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.

The interview featured Texas State Rep. James Talarico, who is running in the Democratic Senate primary. Colbert suggested the decision connects to renewed scrutiny around the Federal Communications Commission’s equal time rule.

The equal time rule requires stations to give comparable airtime to legally qualified candidates if one is featured. For years, late-night and daytime talk shows operated under a news exemption. But FCC chair Brendan Carr recently questioned that assumption.

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

Brendan Carr has publicly criticized talk shows like The View. Still, Democratic FCC commissioner Anna Gomez pushed back. “The FCC has not adopted any new regulation, interpretation, or Commission-level policy altering the long-standing news exemption or equal time framework,” Gomez said.

A source at the FCC told CNN, “Once again here, the threat is the point.”

While the interview did not air on CBS, Colbert posted it online as a digital-only exclusive, since FCC rules do not apply to streaming platforms.

In that interview, Talarico did not hold back.

“Republicans ran against cancel culture, and now they’re trying to control what we watch, what we say, what we read,” he said. “And this is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top.”

Colbert echoed that frustration on-air.

“Let’s just call this what it is,” he said. “Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV. Because all Trump does is watch TV.”

He also addressed Carr directly: “Sir, you’re chairman of the FCC, so FCC you.”

CBS and Carr have not publicly responded to those remarks.

Now the bigger question is whether late-night comedy is about to become the next battleground in the fight over political speech on television.