Stephen Colbert isn’t pretending everything’s fine at CBS. On Tuesday night, the “Late Show” host took a flamethrower to his own network and its lawyers, blasting a corporate statement he flatly labeled “crap.” Then he made the bit literal — scooping up the printed statement in a dog waste bag and tossing it out like it belonged on a sidewalk, not on official letterhead.
The blowup stems from Colbert’s recent interview with James Talarico, a Texas Democrat running in the state’s U.S. Senate primary. Colbert said CBS informed him the segment couldn’t air unless the show offered equal time to Talarico’s primary opponents.
Why the sudden panic?
Colbert pointed to FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who last month floated the idea of enforcing equal-time rules on TV talk shows — programs that have long operated under an exception.
“He issued a letter saying he was thinking about getting rid of that talk show exception,” Colbert said. Then came the punchline aimed squarely at his bosses: “He had not gotten rid of it yet, but CBS generously did it for him.”
The audience booed at the mere mention of CBS.
Earlier that day, the network released a statement pushing back on Colbert’s version of events. According to the host, no one bothered to loop him in before sending it out.
“Without ever talking to me, the corporation put out this press release, this statement,” Colbert said, waving the document in front of the crowd. “This is a surprisingly small piece of paper considering how many butts it’s trying to cover.”
He insisted there should have been zero surprises for the suits upstairs.
“They know damn well that every word of my script last night was approved by CBS’s lawyers, who, for the record, approve every script that goes on the air,” he said.
And it didn’t stop there.
“I got called backstage to get more notes from these lawyers, something that had never ever happened before,” he continued. “And they told us the language they wanted me to use to describe that equal-time exception, and I used that language. So, I don’t know what this is about.”
Translation: Don’t act shocked by words you cleared yourselves.
Colbert said he doesn’t want a war with the network — even as CBS has already announced “The Late Show” will be canceled in May. He says he’s not angry. But he made it crystal clear he’s disappointed.
“I’m just so surprised that this giant global corporation would not stand up to these bullies,” he said.
The original Talarico interview that ignited the mess is on YouTube, where it’s already pulled in millions of views.
Watch the video below:
