Late night television is not what it was. The desks are the same. The bands still play. The applause sign still blinks on command. But the cultural gravity has shifted, and even the hosts can feel it.
When Stephen Colbert told viewers that CBS lawyers advised him not to air an interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico because of the Federal Communications Commission’s equal time rule, the moment landed with unusual force. Not because an interview was delayed. That happens. It landed because it exposed how much of late night now runs through legal review before it reaches the audience.
Colbert said he was also instructed not to explain the reasoning on air. He explained it anyway. Then he uploaded the interview online, where the equal time rule enforced by the Federal Communications Commission does not apply in the same way it does to broadcast license holders.
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