“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert is accusing the Trump administration and CBS of censorship after the network informed the “Late Show” that Colbert couldn’t air an interview with James Talarico, a Texas Democrat running for Senate. CBS said in a statement, “The Late Show was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Texas State Representative James Talarico. The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the Federal Communications Commission’s equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Representative Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled.” The FCC had previously issued an exemption for the equal time rule for news interviews, but earlier this year FCC Chair Brendan Carr mentioned that he was considering dropping the exemption specifically for talk shows. Earlier this month, the FCC opened an investigation into the ABC show “The View,” which also interviewed Talarico. Colbert’s interview with Talarico was ultimately posted on YouTube, outside the jurisdiction of the FCC. It garnered 5 million views. Here’s Colbert last night, insisting that CBS barred him from conducting his interview with Talarico live on the “Late Show” broadcast.

Stephen Colbert: “Between the monologue I did last night and before I did the second act talking about this issue, I had to go backstage. I got called backstage to get more notes from these lawyers, something that had never, ever happened before. 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.”

CBS is currently owned by Paramount Skydance, run by Trump ally David Ellison, the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who has repeatedly visited the White House during President Trump’s second term. Paramount has restarted talks with Warner Bros. Discovery to acquire the company, after Warner Bros. previously rejected Paramount’s hostile takeover bid last year. The takeover would require the approval of Trump’s FCC.