Why Senator Jon Ossoff’s Appearance On CBS’ ‘The Late Show’ Won’t Trigger FCC Equal-Time Rule, But James Talarico’s Could Have

Late-night has found itself in the center of another brouhaha involving the Federal Communications Commission.

The Late Show host Stephen Colbert made headlines Monday when he said that CBS lawyers had prevented him from having Texas state representative James Talarico on last night’s episode as a result of new guidance from FCC chairman Brendan Carr on the “equal time” provision, which requires networks that feature qualified political candidates on air provide time to rivals, if requested.

“[James Talarico] was supposed to be here, 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. “Then, I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on and because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this: let’s talk about this.