Hollywood Reporter: Say Goodbye to Political Candidates on Daytime and Late-Night Talk Shows

As Twitchy has reported, Texas Senate candidate James Talarico and Stephen Colbert ran a massive scam, blaming President Donald Trump and the FCC for pulling Talarico's segment on Colbert's show. The clip of the show went viral online, and Talarico says his campaign took in $2.5 million in the 24 hours since the "FCC" pulled his appearance.

It's campaign season, which means that CBS would have to provide equal time to Talarico's primary opponent, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, in the run-up to the election. Democrats think they have a better chance of winning the Senate seat with Talarico, and the whole thing was just a big stunt to give him a boost, and it worked.

Talk shows get away with a lot. The night he found out his show had been canceled, Colbert's guest was Sen. Adam Schiff. Colbert has had a Republican guest on his show in recent years, though, with that Republican being Liz Cheney. And then there's The View, which falls under the purview of ABC News.

The Hollywood Reporter says that we can say goodbye to most appearances by political candidates on daytime and late-night talk shows.

Say goodbye to most appearances by political candidates on daytime and late night talk shows. https://t.co/4FgEsYC7bd
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 18, 2026

That’s great! pic.twitter.com/zC339h395i
— NanaSays 🦅🇺🇸🧩🙊💬 (@nanalong89) February 18, 2026

Winston Cho reports:

After an open meeting on Wednesday, Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr said that networks should operate under the assumption that shows like The View, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Late Show don’t qualify for long-standing regulatory exemptions that allowed them to discuss political candidates on their shows without having to meet unwieldy requirements.
…
The clarification marks a dramatic departure from how the commission has historically treated talk shows, which have qualified for exemptions as legitimate news programs for decades and are now considered partisan bad actors under the Trump administration. The change doesn’t necessarily prohibit interviews with political candidates but imposes obligations requiring them to give comparable time to opponents. In practice, it will prevent networks from having anyone on by potentially forcing them to have everyone on. Carr’s remarks come after Colbert said on Monday that CBS killed an interview with Texas State Rep. James Talarico because the appearance would trigger regulatory obligations.