Irate Stephen Colbert flouts lawyers' orders as Trump admin kills interview: 'FCC you'
February 17, 2026
Stephen Colbert went off on Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr after he pressured CBS into scrapping the broadcast of an interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who is running for the U.S. Senate.
The "Late Show" host instead posted his interview with the Democratic candidate on the program's YouTube page and addressed the FCC's threat to revise the equal-time requirements for hosting political candidates on late-night talk shows.
"[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 does not want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”
Colbert explained the equal time provision and Carr's threat to waive an exemption the FCC has long recognized for news programming, which the agency notified broadcasters might not apply to talk shows, and he took a shot at President Donald Trump's nominee.
“Carr said… some of [the talk shows] were ‘motivated by partisan purposes,'” Colbert said. “Well, sir, you’re chairman of the FCC, so FCC you.”
“Let’s just call this what it is,” Colbert added. “Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV, because all Trump does is watch TV.”
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