Last night, after Stephen Colbert’s monologue and before his second act, he had to go backstage at the Ed Sullivan Theater to discuss FCC guidelines.
Knowing that he was going to discuss the fact that his interview with Texas State Rep. James Talarico was not going to be broadcast on the show, but rather only on YouTube, CBS lawyers wanted to make sure that he used the correct language. Something that he was willing to do.
“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,” he said on tonight’s show.
Then, earlier today, his “group chat blowed up” and he was surprised that CBS put out a statement saying that The Late Show was “not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview” with 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,” the company noted in a statement.
Colbert said, “Clearly, this statement was written by and I’m guessing for lawyers.
“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,” he added. “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.”
He then proceeded to use a dog poo bag to put away the statement.
But Colbert said he wasn’t “mad”.
“I really don’t want an adversarial relationship with the network. I’ve never had one,” he said, before calling out his good relationships with CBS bosses George Cheeks, David Stapf and Amy Reisenbach.
As of this evening, his interview with Talarico has landed nearly 4M clips on YouTube. “We obeyed our network and put the interview on YouTube, where it’s gotten millions of views. I wish we could have put it on the show, where no one would have watched it,” he joked.
Earlier in the show, Colbert made a Heated Rivalry-themed joke about it being the Year of the Fire Horse. “Be on the lookout for heightened tensions in already heated relationships,” he said.
Quite.
Deadline has reached out to CBS for further comment.