Late-night has found itself in the center of another brouhaha involving the Federal Communications Commission.
The Late Show host Stephen Colbert made headlines last night when he said that CBS lawyers had prevented him from having Texas state representative James Talarico on Monday’s episode as a result of new guidance from FCC Chair Brendan Carr on the “equal time” provision, which requires networks that feature qualified political candidates on air provide time to rivals, if requested.
“[James 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,” Colbert said. “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.”
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This, however, is not the way that CBS tells it. The network, in a slightly unusual approach, hit back against its on-air star, saying that it didn’t “prohibit” The Late Show from broadcasting the Talarico interview. “The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled. The Late Show 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 company noted in a statement.
All of this comes as The Late Show is set to welcome another politician to the Ed Sullivan Theater this week: Senator Jon Ossoff, who made noise this weekend by calling President Trump “spiritually broken”.
So, if Colbert thinks that CBS lawyers wouldn’t let him air an interview with Talarico on broadcast television (even if CBS has pushed back slightly), why is he still plotting ahead with an interview with Ossoff, a Democrat from Georgia, who is running for reelection in November?
The answer is in the FCC’s own details.
In January, Carr issued guidance that highlighted that Congress put “protections in place to ensure equal access to broadcast station facilities for legally qualified candidates”.
Those last three words are key: Talarico, who is running for Senate in Texas, is a “legally qualified candidate”, facing Jasmine Crockett and Ahmad Hassan in the Democratic primary, which will be held on March 3.
Ossoff, however, isn’t a “legally qualified candidate”, yet. While the former documentary filmmaker, who was first elected to the seat in 202, has announced he is running for reelection, the qualifying period for the primaries in Georgia doesn’t kick in until the start of March. This means he is free to appear on The Late Show without CBS having to invite his rivals on as well, if they asked, of course.
Another good example of this was Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s appearance on The Late Show last month. Shapiro, who was on the show ostensibly to promote his new memoir, has announced that he would run for re-election, but when he appeared on the show on January 26, he was not a “legally qualified” candidate, yet.
On last night’s showing, Colbert is clearly poking the bear that fired him.
He joked that CBS’s decision to enforce rules that the FCC has merely suggested, rather than officially introduced, was done for “purely financial reasons”, a callback to the statement that the network put out when it announced it was axing The Late Show franchise as David Ellison’s Skydance was buying CBS owner Paramount.
The comedian also lightly mocked one of CBS’ scripted darlings. “Matlock: watch it or don’t watch it. I leave in May,” he said.
What is CBS going to do? Fire him, again? Early? The whole situation does have echoes of the situation at Disney when ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! after Kimmel made comments in the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk.
One of the main differences, for now, is that the affiliates have yet to get involved, which is what prompted Disney to initially pull JKL!
The comedian is also continuing to poke fun at FCC Chair Carr. On last night’s show, Colbert called Carr a “smug bowling pin”, who is “Dutch oven-ing America’s airwaves” with the suggestion of enforcing these “equal time” guidelines for late-night television, but not talk radio, which leans conservative.
So, if Colbert thinks that CBS lawyers wouldn’t let him air an interview with Talarico on broadcast television (even if CBS has pushed back slightly), why is he still plotting ahead with an interview with Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff from Georgia, who is set to appear on the show on Wednesday?
One would imagine Colbert will continue to address this subject on tonight’s show, as well as asking Ossoff for his thoughts. Ignore the irony that a large portion of viewers will be watching both on YouTube.