The attention surrounding James Talarico‘s Late Show with Stephen Colbert interview has been very good for the Texas Democrat’s campaign for U.S. Senate.
He raised $2.5 million in the 24 hours after the segment was shifted from CBS broadcast to YouTube, his largest single fundraising period for the campaign.
On Monday, Colbert said that he was prohibited from featuring Talarico on his late-night show, as the FCC has issued new guidance about the appearance of political candidates on talk shows.
Instead, Colbert said that the interview would be posted on YouTube. There, the interview has drawn almost 5.2 million views, greatly exceeding the show’s average broadcast audience.
Talarico said in a statement that the incident was “the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top. A threat to one of our First Amendment rights is a threat to all of our First Amendment rights.”
CBS was not banned from airing the interview. But had it aired on CBS broadcast, the network’s affiliates in Texas may have been on the hook to provide equal time to Talarico’s rivals in the Democratic primary, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) and Ahmad Hassan.
Previously, late night and daytime talk shows have assumed that they are exempt from the Equal Time Rule, given the newsworthy nature of many of their interviews and previous FCC decisions. But Donald Trump has lashed out at Colbert and other late-night hosts, and his FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, issued new guidance last month warning talk programs that they may not be exempt and be obligated to provide airtime to all candidates who request it in a coming election.
In the controversy that followed Colbert’s Monday show, CBS issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the host “was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James 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.”
But Colbert on his Tuesday show that CBS lawyers had reviewed his script where he said that he was blocked from airing the interview.
Talarico will be in Los Angeles on Thursday for a fundraiser for his campaign.
