Stephen Colbert’s sit-down with Texas State Rep. James Talarico reached 3 million views in just 18 hours Tuesday after the network pulled the interview from “The Late Show.”
The late night host pushed the interview with the Texas Democrat straight to the “Late Show” YouTube page after explaining on Monday’s broadcast that he was told by CBS’ lawyers that he couldn’t air the segment due to FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s enforcement of the equal-time rule. Colbert said he was also told he could not share why the interview would not air on CBS with his viewers. Instead, the host went on to share this news anyway with his audience in lieu of the appearance.
CBS responded Tuesday to Colbert’s candor about why the interview was scrapped and its subsequent online-exclusive, refuting Colbert’s claims and saying that the late night show was only given guidance for how it could air the segment and operate within the FCC’s guidelines.
Of course, the dust-up brought a lot of interest to Colbert’s interview with Talarico on his YouTube page.
In just 18 hours after the online-exclusive interview was posted, Talarico’s sit-down has outpaced Colbert’s conversations with Super Bowl halftime performer Bad Bunny and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Bad Bunny’s pre-Super Bowl interview, in which the Grammy sinner took “The Colbert Questionert,” hit 1.1 million views on YouTube in the two weeks since it was posted.
Other high profile interviews like Obama‘s reached 1.9 million views since her November appearance, and Jane Fonda‘s take on America’s “slide into authoritarianism” surpassed a million views in the three weeks since it aired.
Talarico’s interview comes ahead of the 2026 midterm elections in which the Democratic Texas representative is campaigning for a Senate seat. Colbert noted that the Senate race should not be as interesting as it is, but two years into Trump’s term, Talarico may now have a chance to flip the Lone Star State blue.
“I think that Donald Trump is worried that we’re about to flip Texas,” the representative told Colbert. “This is the party that ran against cancel culture, and now they are trying to control what we watch, what we say, what we read, and this is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture. The kind that comes from the top.”
“Corporate media executives are selling out the First Amendment to curry favor with corrupt politicians,” Talarico said.
Watch the video interview below:
In place of airing the interview on CBS, Colbert discussed why his interview with Texas State Representative Talarico was absent from “The Late Show.” He explained the network’s pressure to uphold the FCC’s equal-time guidelines, which have previously been exempt for late night shows.
FCC chairman Carr said in a letter earlier this year that he was debating dropping the exception because he claimed some talk shows were motivated by partisan purposes.
The post Colbert’s James Talarico Interview Hits 3 Million YouTube Views, Surpasses Bad Bunny Appearance appeared first on TheWrap.
