Stephen Colbert says TV interview with Democrat pulled amid regulatory fears

Stephen Colbert, left, and James Talarico (AP Photo/Talia Sprague, Jae C. Hong, file)

US talk show host Stephen Colbert has said his interview with a Democratic politician was pulled from Monday night’s broadcast amid TV network fears it would violate regulatory guidance from Donald Trump’s government.

Colbert’s statements about his interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico overshadowed the start of early voting for primaries in the state that feature a heated race between Mr Talarico and representative Jasmine Crockett.

Colbert said lawyers for TV network CBS said in “no uncertain terms” that Mr Talarico could not appear on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert broadcast because it feared violating guidance from the Trump administration on giving equal time to political candidates. Colbert nevertheless interviewed Mr Talarico for nearly 15 minutes and posted the video on YouTube, because online material does not fall under the equal time rule.

Stephen Colbert’s show on CBS is coming to an end in May (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

“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,” Colbert said. “And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”

CBS disputed Colbert’s account, saying its lawyers only “provided legal guidance” that broadcasting an interview with Mr Talarico could trigger the FCC’s (Federal Communications Commission) equal time rule.

Ms Crockett expressed scepticism about the “mania” playing out on the first day of early voting, “which feels kind of convenient”.

Both Mr Talarico and Ms Crockett have built national profiles through viral social media clips as media organisations have navigated around changing broadcast guidance issued under Mr Trump governing how they interview political candidates.

Mr Talarico posted a nearly minute-long clip of his interview with Colbert on X, calling it “the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see”. During the interview, Mr Talarico said he thinks Mr Trump is worried that Democrats can win the Texas seat.

This is the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see.

His FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert.

Trump is worried we’re about to flip Texas. pic.twitter.com/BCev5jZbKc

— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) February 17, 2026

“The administration was playing politics and was trying to control what a late-night show puts on air, something that’s never been done before,” Mr Talarico told reporters during a news conference on Tuesday in Austin after he voted early. “The executives at CBS were willing to go along with it.”

Ms Crockett suggested that Colbert could have avoided an issue with the FCC by having her on the show, as he has in the past. Both she and Mr Talarico also have appeared on ABC’s daytime show The View.

She told reporters after voting early in Dallas that she still was looking into the situation but added: “I’ve done Colbert a number of times. I’ve done The View a number of times. I’ve done (Jimmy) Kimmel a number (of times). I’ve done all of these shows a number of times.”

Jasmine Crockett suggested that the issue could have been avoided by having her on the Colbert show (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Broadcast networks have been required to give equal time to political candidates, but that rule has not traditionally been applied to talk shows.

In January, the Federal Communications Commission issued new guidance warning late-night and daytime hosts that they need to give political candidates equal time. FCC chairman Brendan Carr, who was appointed by Mr Trump’s administration, questioned the talk show exemption and posited that hosts were “motivated by partisan purposes”.

The public notice said the FCC had not seen evidence that talk shows would qualify for an exemption from the rule for “bona fide news”. Mr Carr has often criticised network talk shows, suggesting last year that probing The View – whose hosts have frequently been critical of Mr Trump – over the exemption might be “worthwhile”.

Colbert’s days as host are limited, following CBS’s announcement last year that it was cancelling his show this May for financial reasons.

But the timing of that announcement — three days after Colbert criticised the settlement between Mr Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a story on current affairs programme 60 Minutes – led two US senators to publicly question the motives behind the move, which served to remove from air one of Mr Trump’s most prominent and persistent late-night critics.

Meanwhile, Mr Talarico and Ms Crockett are hoping to avoid a May 26 runoff by capturing at least 50% of the Democratic vote in the March 3 primary.