The latest feud between CBS and Stephen Colbert doesn't seem to be going away. While that may mean headaches for the network and a bumpy finish to Colbert's Late Show tenure, one person found a silver lining in the most recent clash.
Earlier this week, CBS chose to withhold Colbert's interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, citing concerns over the FCC's Equal Time rule. The Late Show ultimately aired the conversation on its YouTube channel in an apparent compromise between the show and the network's legal team.
Within 24 hours of Colbert announcing that the interview would not air on the CBS broadcast and would instead be posted to YouTube, Talarico’s campaign hauled in a staggering $2.5 million in fundraising. It marked the largest single fundraising period of his campaign. On YouTube, the segment has drawn over 6.5 million views, which far surpasses the show’s average television audience. In the end, the controversy ended up giving Talarico exposure that arguably exceeded what a standard late-night appearance might have delivered.
On Monday’s show, Colbert explained that he had been prohibited from featuring Talarico on the broadcast after the Federal Communications Commission issued new guidance about political candidates appearing on talk shows. The guidance warned that entertainment programs may not be exempt from the Equal Time Rule, meaning stations airing such content could be required to provide comparable airtime to rival candidates who request it during an election cycle.
Technically, CBS was not “banned” from airing the interview. However, had it run on the network’s broadcast feed, Texas-based CBS affiliates could potentially have been obligated to offer equal time to Talarico’s Democratic primary opponents, Jasmine Crockett and Ahmad Hassan.
The move instantly transformed Talarico’s appearance from a routine late-night interview into a potentially turning point in his campaign. The optics of a Democrat being sidelined from a national broadcast, especially The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, fueled online outrage and drove millions of curious viewers to YouTube. Instead of a single-night TV hit, Talarico received days of media coverage, viral amplification, and a multimillion-dollar fundraising bump.
Ironically, the FCC’s heightened scrutiny under director Brendan Carr, widely seen as part of broader efforts to shield President Donald Trump from media criticism, may have achieved the opposite effect here. By attempting to silence opposition on late-night, the commission inadvertently handed a Democratic hopeful a talking point that energized supporters. Talarico issued a statement that called the decision "the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top. A threat to one of our First Amendment rights is a threat to all of our First Amendment rights.”
Meanwhile, the episode appears to have further chilled relations between CBS and Colbert. The host made clear on-air that while he was not “mad” at the network, he disagreed with the decision. Given ongoing tensions between late-night hosts and corporate leadership over political coverage, the incident adds another layer of strain to an already delicate dynamic as Colbert nears the end of his Late Show tenure.