FCC Attempt to Kill Stephen Colbert Interview Completely Backfires

The Trump administration attempted to block television host Stephen Colbert from airing his interview with Texas state representative and Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, but the attempt backfired.

Instead of including the interview on his CBS show Monday night, which the network’s lawyers had warned against, Colbert published the interview on YouTube and other social media channels, where it has already garnered millions of views on each platform, far more than a single television broadcast of the show, which averages 2.3 million viewers.

Talarico himself posted the interview on his account with the caption: “This is the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see.” It has gotten 8.3 million views as of this writing. On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s YouTube channelthe interview has been viewed 2.4 million times and clips from the show on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook also attract millions of viewers.

Colbert challenged CBS by mentioning the interview during its Monday night show and urging viewers to watch it online. He also called out the Federal Communications Commission and its Trump-appointed head, Brendan Carr, for the agency’s new rule requiring late-night talk shows to give equal time to candidates from across the political spectrum. Colbert pointed out a recent clip of Carr discussing him and fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

“If Kimmel or Colbert want to continue to do their programming and they don’t want to have to comply with that requirement, then they can go to a cable channel or a podcast or a streaming service, and that’s fine,” Carr said in the clip. Colbert took Carr’s advice and put his interview with Talarico online, where it took off, giving Colbert and Talarico more publicity than they otherwise would have had.