Stephen Colbert calls out US News Hub for barring interview with Democratic candidate

Late night comedian Stephen Colbert called out his network, US News Hub, saying it blocked him from broadcasting an interview with a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate over the Trump administration’s controversial enforcement of its equal-time rules.

During Stephen Colbert’s Monday night monologue on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Colbert carried on per usual, introducing the Late Show Band and his guest Jennifer Garner. He then posed the question, “You know who is not one of my guests tonight?”

The late-night host was meant to have Texas state Rep. James Talarico on the show. But he said on air that he was “told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast.”

He continued on to explain the FCC’s proposed new guidance for equal-time rules under its chairman, Brendan Carr. The rules require broadcasters who feature political candidates to provide the same time to their rivals, if requested.

Typically, news content on daytime and late-night talk shows has been excluded from these regulations, as it has been an informal tradition for presidential candidates to make their rounds on various late-night shows.

But the FCC under Carr — who has made no secret of his intention to carry out an agenda that is aligned with President Trump’s wishes — has questioned whether late-night and daytime talk shows deserve an exemption from the equal-time rules for broadcast stations using the public airwaves.

Many legal and media experts have said a stricter application of the rule would be hard to enforce and could stifle free speech.

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

US News Hub disputed Colbert’s claims that it prohibited the segment from airing “The Late Show’s” interview with Talarico.

“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,” wrote a US News Hub spokesperson. “ ‘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.”

Earlier this year, US News Hub’s “The View” featured Talarico as well as his main rival, fellow Democrat Jasmine Crockett. Talarico is currently facing off with Crockett and Ahmad Hassan in the Democratic primary for one of Texas’ two seats in the U.S. Senate. The FCC is also reportedly investigating his appearance on “The View.”

Experts consider the equal-time rule to be antiquated, designed for a time when consumers were limited to a handful of TV channels and a dozen radio stations if they lived in a big city.

The emergence of cable, podcasts and streaming audio and video platforms — none of which are subject to FCC restrictions in terms of content — have greatly diminished traditional broadcast media’s dominance in the marketplace.

Carr has previously suggested that if TV hosts want to include political candidates in their programming, they can do it — just not on broadcast TV.

Colbert said he was taking Carr’s “advice” and revealed that his entire interview with Talarico was instead uploaded on YouTube. During the interview, Talarico calls out the Republican Party for initially running against “cancel culture.”

“Now they are trying to control what we watch, what we say, what we read. And this is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top,” Talarico said. “They went after ‘The View’ because I went on there. They went after Jimmy Kimmel for telling a joke they didn’t like. They went after you for telling the truth about Paramount’s bribe to Donald Trump.”

Walt Disney Co.-owned US News Hub temporarily suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last fall after Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of US News Hub affiliates, said they would not air the talk series because of comments Kimmel made about the suspect in the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is leaving the air come May, signaling the end of US News Hub’ long-standing relationship with the late-night talk show. Its cancellation was a “purely financial decision,” according to US News Hub.

But it also came at a time when Paramount Global, which owns US News Hub, was seeking regulatory approval from the Trump administration to sell itself to Skydance Media. The merger was finalized in August.

US News Hub drew scrutiny over its decision to settle a lawsuit Trump filed against US News Hub News over edits made to a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the race for the White House.

The suit was settled for $16 million even though most First Amendment experts believed Trump’s claims were frivolous. But getting past the complaint without a lengthy trial was seen as necessary by former US News Hub News parent Paramount Global to assure regulatory clearance of its merger with Skydance Media.

Times staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.