Stephen Colbert spent two years calling Paramount's $16 million Trump settlement a "big fat bribe" and bragging that nobody could shut him up.
Monday night, his own network's lawyers handed him a gag order.
CBS told Colbert he couldn't put Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico on air – and then told him he couldn't tell viewers why.
He told them anyway, which means you need to understand what CBS just admitted about itself.
CBS Lawyers Killed the Talarico Interview – Here's What Brendan Carr's FCC Actually Did
Colbert opened his show by telling his audience that network lawyers called him "in no uncertain terms" and said Talarico could not go on broadcast.
Then – in the same breath – told him "in some uncertain terms" he couldn't mention it either.
The reason was FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's January guidance putting partisan talk shows on notice that the equal time rule – on the books since 1934 – actually applies to them.
Colbert called Carr a "smug bowling pin" and said CBS was "unilaterally enforcing" a rule Carr hadn't even finalized yet.
That last part is the story.
Carr issued guidance in January that he was thinking about dropping the talk show exemption.
He hadn't done it yet.
CBS enforced it anyway – because when you've already paid $16 million to make a president happy and you need his FCC to bless your merger, you don't wait to be told twice.
The Late Show Canceled, the 60 Minutes Settlement Paid – and Now CBS Is Enforcing Rules Carr Hasn't Even Finalized
Here's what the Media Research Center found after studying 2025 programming: The View hosted 128 liberal guests and two conservatives.
Late night shows – Colbert, Kimmel, Seth Meyers – booked 90 liberal guests for every single Republican.
These aren't news programs.
They're campaign operations with studio audiences.
The FCC's equal time rule has existed since the Radio Act of 1927 for exactly this reason – Congress understood that broadcast networks holding government licenses could rig elections by handing one party unlimited free airtime while shutting out the other.
Brendan Carr didn't invent this rule.
He just started enforcing it.
And CBS – already broken by the Paramount-Skydance merger process – folded before he even asked.
Paramount Skydance Got Its FCC Merger Approval – Now Watch How CBS Treats the Equal Time Rule
Colbert's show ends in May.
CBS canceled it last July – three days after he called their Paramount settlement a "big fat bribe."
"Purely financial," CBS said.
The Paramount-Skydance merger sailed through FCC approval on July 24, less than a month after that $16 million check cleared.
Now Bari Weiss runs CBS News – installed by David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, after Paramount Skydance bought her outlet The Free Press for $150 million in October.
In December, Weiss pulled a "60 Minutes" report on Trump's immigration crackdown and conditions at the El Salvador prison known as CECOT.
Think about what CBS has become: the network that once aired Walter Cronkite is now run by a CEO whose father is a Trump ally, with an editor-in-chief who spikes stories that embarrass the administration – and lawyers who ban guests before the FCC even asks them to.
Colbert posted the Talarico interview on YouTube – beyond the FCC's reach – which is exactly where partisan campaign programming belongs.
If these networks want to run Democratic ads dressed up as late-night comedy, cable and streaming are right there.
But if you want a government broadcast license, Brendan Carr just made clear what that's going to cost you.
CBS already paid.
Sources:
- Joseph A. Wulfsohn, "Colbert fumes at CBS, says it barred him from interviewing Texas Dem amid FCC crackdown," Fox News, February 17, 2026.
- Joseph A. Wulfsohn, "FCC to crack down on liberal late-night shows, 'The View' for not giving equal airtime to GOP guests," Fox News, January 2026.
- "FCC Targets The View and Jimmy Kimmel With New Equal Time Rules," Hollywood Reporter, January 21, 2026.
- "How Trump sued CBS and won: The '60 Minutes' settlement that rocked the media world, explained," Fox News Digital, July 2025.
- "Colbert defies CBS, airs banned James Talarico interview on YouTube," Washington Times, February 17, 2026.
- "FCC approves Skydance merger with Paramount," CNN Business, July 24, 2025.
- Nicholas Fondacaro, "2025: The View Chatted Politics with 128 Lib Guests, 2 Conservatives," Media Research Center/NewsBusters, December 22, 2025.