Stephen Colbert says CBS stopped him from airing an interview with a Democratic Senate candidate… so he released it on YouTube instead.

The clash is the latest sign of mounting tension between late-night hosts, broadcast networks, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat running in a highly competitive U.S. Senate race, had been booked for Monday’s Late Show. But during his opening monologue, Colbert told viewers that CBS lawyers stepped in at the last minute.

"He was supposed to be here," Colbert said. "But we were told in no uncertain terms by our network's lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast."

Colbert said he was also instructed not to mention the decision on air. Instead, he did exactly that.

“Because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this,” he told viewers, “let’s talk about this.”

CBS disputed that it blocked the interview outright, saying it provided legal guidance. The concern: the FCC’s “equal time” rule, which requires broadcast stations to offer comparable airtime to political candidates.

The regulation applies to over-the-air broadcasters like CBS but not to cable or online platforms. That meant airing Talarico on television could trigger equal-time obligations for rival candidates — including fellow Democratic contender Rep. Jasmine Crockett — while posting the interview on YouTube would not.

So that’s what The Late Show did. The full interview went online overnight and quickly topped 2 million views by Tuesday — far outpacing recent guest segments, most of which have drawn under half a million. The last interview to break 1 million was with Bad Bunny ahead of his Super Bowl halftime show.

Colbert noted that late-night programs typically rely on the FCC’s “bona fide news exemption,” which allows news and public-affairs shows to host political figures without offering equal time to opponents. But in January, the FCC’s Media Bureau said it had seen no evidence that current talk shows qualify for that exemption — a warning that reportedly worried CBS lawyers.

CBS said it presented options for satisfying equal-time requirements and that the show ultimately chose to release the interview online. Meanwhile, the FCC recently opened a probe into ABC after The View also hosted Talarico.

In the YouTube interview, Talarico argued the scrutiny is politically driven.

“I think that Donald Trump is worried that we’re about to flip Texas,” he said. "This is the party that ran against cancel culture, and now they're trying to control what we watch, what we say, what we read."

Talarico is locked in a competitive Democratic primary against Crockett. The winner will face a Republican nominee — possibly incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, former Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, or Rep. Wesley Hunt — in this year’s midterm elections.

The standoff adds to an already turbulent period for Colbert and CBS. In July, the network announced The Late Show will end in May 2026, calling it a financial decision amid a tough late-night landscape. That news followed Colbert’s criticism of CBS for settling a $16 million lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris — a move some lawmakers questioned.

CBS is owned by Paramount, which was acquired in August by David Ellison’s Skydance Media. The network has since faced additional upheaval, including criticism of new CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss over a delayed 60 Minutes segment and Anderson Cooper’s announcement Monday that he will leave the program after 20 years.

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