Stephen Colbert took on his own network again Tuesday, pushing back against CBS' statement regarding his unaired interview with a Democratic candidate for Senate.
Holding up the company's statement on a piece of paper, Colbert joked: "Now this is a surprisingly small piece of paper, considering how many butts it's trying to cover."
The statement came after Colbert claimed Monday that CBS had pushed him not to air an interview he had done with Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who is running for U.S. Senate. Colbert, who is parting ways with CBS in May, said the company had been worried about possible legal action from the Trump administration.
In response, CBS said in a statement: “THE LATE SHOW was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James 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. 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.”
In a seven-minute monologue, Colbert fired back, reading that statement, then adding: "Now, clearly, this statement was written by, and I'm guessing for, lawyers. Now, I'm not a lawyer, and I don't want to tell them how to do their jobs, but since they seem intent on telling me how to do mine, here we go."
Colbert went on to say he was aware they could book other guests and noted that Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, Talarico's primary opponent for the Democratic nomination for the Senate race in Texas, had been on his show twice. He then noted he obeyed the network's guidance and put the video on YouTube.
"But here's where I do want to tell the lawyers how to do their jobs," Colbert continued. "They know damn well that every word of my script last night was approved by CBS' lawyers, who, for the record, approve every script that goes on the air, whether it's about equal time or this image of frogs having sex. That's a true story, but for another time."
"Very specifically, and this is never, in fact, between the monologue I did last night and before I did the second act talking about this issue, I had to go backstage," he said.
"I got called backstage to get more notes from these lawyers, something that had never, ever happened before, and they told us the language they wanted me to use to describe that equal time exception, and I used that language, so I don't know what this is about," Colbert said, gesturing toward the statement.
He went on to say he did not want to have an adversarial relationship with CBS, but added: "I'm just so surprised that this giant global corporation would not stand up to these bullies. Come on, you're Paramount. No, no, no, you're more than that. You're Paramount Plus."
Colbert then finished on a somber but humorous note.
"And for the lawyers to release this without even talking to me is really surprising. I don't even know what to do with this crap," Colbert said, before pulling out a bag and picking up the statement as if it were animal excrement.
CBS did not immediately return a request for comment on Colbert's Tuesday night show.
The squabble between Colbert and CBS comes as the Federal Communications Commission under Chairman Brendan Carr has sought to crack down on what he has called liberal bias in mainstream media.
In a news conference Wednesday, Carr said the agency plans to strictly enforce the FCC’s equal time provision and indicated that some talk shows may no longer be able to rely on decades-old precedent to qualify for exemption.
The FCC equal time rule requires radio and television programs to permit candidates for the same office access to their airtime. It is designed to prevent networks from political bias or showing favoritism to certain candidates, but includes exemptions for news interviews.
When asked to respond to the CBS incident, Carr said: "What's so ironic about it is, you know, had they gone down the path of complying with equal time provisions here, it would have meant more air time for more Democrats to say whatever those Democrats wanted."
He called the incident "part of the broader hoax that too many in the fake news media simply fell for — hook, line and sinker."
In reference to Colbert, Carr added: “Look, I get it. It’s tough to be Colbert. He’s had what he probably views as a long and distinguished career in the limelight. He sees that, that limelight is fading, it's coming to an end. That’s got to be a difficult time for him — I get it — but that doesn’t change the facts of what happened here.”
Last year, ABC pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air “indefinitely” after Carr threatened to “take action” against Disney and ABC over remarks Kimmel made about the fallout surrounding the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. ABC reinstated Kimmel’s show after outrage within and beyond the entertainment industry over the decision.
Carr has leaned on the equal time provision as a tool to pressure media companies and suggested Wednesday that prior FCC precedent may not automatically protect talk shows from scrutiny if their current formats don’t clearly fit within the FCC’s “bona fide news” exemption.
The chairman said that if someone is deemed a "partisan political actor," which he confirmed could include a talk show host, then that particular show would not qualify for the exemption.
“And that’s OK,” he said. “It just means you have to either provide equal airtime to the different candidates or use different ways to get your message out — again, through streaming services and other means.”
In this particular case, if strict enforcement of the rule were applied, other candidates in the Texas Democratic Senate primary — Crockett and Ahmad Hassan — would be entitled to comparable airtime.
"Every single broadcaster in this country has an obligation to be responsible for the programming that they choose to air," Carr said during the news conference. "And if it doesn’t [comply with FCC rules], those individual broadcasters are going to have potential liability."
FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez, the lone Democratic commissioner, called the debacle "another troubling example of corporate capitulation in the face of this Administration’s broader campaign to censor and control speech."
"The FCC has no lawful authority to pressure broadcasters for political purposes or to create a climate that chills free expression," she said. "CBS is fully protected under the First Amendment to determine what interviews it airs, which makes its decision to yield to political pressure all the more disappointing."
CBS announced last year that Colbert’s show would come to an end in 2026. The network, whose parent company Paramount was seeking the Trump administration's approval for an $8 billion merger with Hollywood studio Skydance, said at the time that the decision to cancel the show was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night."
Colbert has been a consistent critic of the president and his policies.
